ETRADE Brings Spot Crypto Trading to Morgan Stanley Retail Clients
Morgan Stanley is integrating Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana trading directly into ETRADE accounts, a move that leverages the bank's trusted brand to capture retail demand for digital assets alongside traditional investments.
E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley has completed its rollout of spot cryptocurrency trading, allowing eligible retail clients to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana directly within their existing brokerage accounts. The service routes orders through a linked account managed by Zerohash, which handles execution and custody. Users will see their digital asset balances displayed alongside their traditional stock holdings.
The firm is charging a 50 basis point fee for crypto trades, with functionality to transfer assets expected to arrive later this year. Because the digital assets are held in a separate non-brokerage account with Zerohash, they do not carry protections from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation or FDIC insurance. This structural separation keeps the risk contained away from the core brokerage.
The launch represents a calculated entry into retail digital assets for Morgan Stanley, avoiding the need to build a proprietary trading and custody stack from scratch. By folding crypto into a familiar brokerage interface rather than offering a standalone product, the bank is positioning itself as a safer alternative to dedicated crypto exchanges. "With the rollout of crypto trading on E*TRADE we're advancing our digital assets strategy and bringing new capabilities to clients in an integrated way," said Chad Turner, head of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Platforms.
Internal polling by the bank underscores the commercial logic of this integrated approach. A recent Morgan Stanley investor survey found 32% of respondents consider an established, trustworthy company the most critical factor when choosing a crypto platform. Another 26% prioritized the ability to view digital assets alongside traditional investments, a feature E*TRADE has built directly into its dashboard.
While the initial rollout relies on Zerohash's infrastructure, Morgan Stanley plans to eventually bring the technology in-house. Digital asset services are slated to transition to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association, a national trust bank currently being organized. This transition would shift more of the underlying crypto plumbing directly under Morgan Stanley's regulated umbrella, reducing third-party reliance over time.
The crypto integration coincides with a broader modernization of the E*TRADE platform, which also includes the addition of fractional share trading, an expanded IPO center and new tools for active traders. Morgan Stanley shares traded at $220.66.
