Investment bank Morgan Stanley is seeking to launch its Bitcoin spot fund with a 0.14% fee, which would make it the cheapest in the U.S. market and potentially force rivals to lower fees to stay competitive.
Fee 0.14%, proposed in Morgan Stanley’s latest S-1 registration statement on Friday, it will be one basis point below the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC), currently the cheapest on the US market, and 11 basis points below BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).
“It’s a big move. They’re not beating around the bush,” Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart he said, predicting that the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) will “likely launch in early April.”
Bloomberg ETF contributor, analyst Eric Balchunas he said the low fee means that none of Morgan Stanley’s approximately 16,000 financial advisors – managing $6.2 trillion in client assets – would have no hesitation in recommending the product to their clients.
Given that spot Bitcoin ETFs track Bitcoin (BTC) price movements, Morgan Stanley’s ultra-low fee could trigger a modern fee war in the $83 billion market, putting immediate pressure on rivals to cut costs or risk losing assets.
Regulatory approval would make Morgan Stanley the first bank to issue a cash Bitcoin ETF, expanding access to Bitcoin exposure to millions of its wealthy clients.
“They are the main custodians of wealthy boomers’ money” – Balchunas in addition.
Morgan Stanley previously selected Coinbase and Bank of New York Mellon as proposed custodians for its Bitcoin ETF.
Morgan Stanley seeks suite of cryptocurrency ETFs, banking charter
Morgan Stanley, previously one of the more crypto-averse Wall Street firms, filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF in the first week of January along with the Solana ETF (SOL).
Related: Bitcoin traders see a 53% chance of BTC price below 66,000. dollars until April 24
It then filed paperwork for an ETF investing in Ether (ETH) that same week, and later that month the bank named one of Morgan Stanley’s longest-serving executives, Amy Oldenburg, to lead its digital assets team.
On February 18, Morgan Stanley also applied for a national custody banking charter, seeking to hold certain digital assets and make purchases, sales and swaps for clients, in addition to staking services.
In October, before the investment bank adopted its institutional crypto strategy, it recommended investors allocate between 2% and 4% to crypto portfolios. It also allowed its financial advisors to recommend cryptocurrency funds to clients with individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)s.
Warehouse: Bitcoin could face a difficult fork due to any attempt to freeze Satoshi’s coinS
