Morgan Stanley’s new Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded merchandise generated roughly $38 million in mixed buying and selling quantity on their first day, giving the Wall Avenue agency an instantaneous presence in two crypto fund markets dominated by earlier entrants.
The Morgan Stanley Ethereum Belief (MSSE) recorded 933,715 shares traded Tuesday and attracted $5.15 million of web inflows. The Morgan Stanley Solana Belief (MSOL) traded 951,216 shares, producing roughly $19 million of turnover however no web creations. Every product started buying and selling on NYSE Arca at round $20 per share.
Data from SoSoValue reveals that the MSSE’s inflows represented greater than a 3rd of the roughly $14.5 million that entered US ETH funds throughout the session. BlackRock’s staking-enabled ETHB drew $5.9 million, and its bigger ETHA product added $3.5 million.
In the meantime, the Solana market moved in the other way, with the prevailing fund group dropping $18.1 million as buyers pulled your complete quantity from Bitwise’s BSOL.
The contrasting debuts present an early check of how a lot market share Morgan Stanley can seize after getting into each classes late. MSSE transformed a large portion of its first-day buying and selling into new property, whereas MSOL drew comparable secondary-market exercise throughout a session when buyers had been decreasing publicity to the broader Solana fund advanced.
Morgan Stanley Funding Administration launched the 2 merchandise July 28 as an extension of a crypto lineup that started with the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust in April.
MSBT had accrued greater than $400 million in property as of press time regardless of getting into a Bitcoin fund market already led by BlackRock and Fidelity.
The brand new merchandise additionally push Morgan Stanley past easy spot publicity. Each can stake their underlying property, inserting the agency immediately right into a rising competitors over how a lot yield fund issuers return to buyers.
Morgan Stanley undercuts rivals on charges
Morgan Stanley is getting into that combat with one of many lowest combos of administration and staking fees out there in both market.
MSSE and MSOL every carry a 0.14% annual sponsor charge. Morgan Stanley may also take no direct share of their staking rewards, whereas custodians and staking suppliers are anticipated to obtain an mixture 5% of gross rewards. The rest is retained by the trusts earlier than distributions and relevant bills.
That construction undercuts a number of established opponents.
In Solana, Bitwise’s BSOL fees a 0.20% administration charge and passes 6% of staking rewards to service suppliers. Grayscale’s GSOL fees 0.19% and provides up 7%, whereas Franklin Templeton’s SOEZ takes 8% of staking rewards. Staking cuts rise to at the very least 10% at 21Shares, 15% at Constancy and 25% at VanEck, Farside Buyers data present.
The ETH market has an analogous unfold, Farside information shows. Grayscale’s lower-cost ETH product carries a 0.15% administration charge and a 6% staking cost, whereas BlackRock’s ETHB has a acknowledged 0.25% sponsor charge and provides up 10% of staking rewards.
The staking fees on 21Shares’ TETH and Grayscale’s bigger ETHE product stand at 25% and 23%, respectively.
BlackRock quickly undercuts Morgan Stanley on ETHB’s headline administration price via a waiver that lowers its charge to 0.12% on the primary $2.5 billion of property for 12 months starting in March. Its customary fee stays 0.25%.
Morgan Stanley’s problem subsequently extends past a traditional ETF charge struggle. For staking merchandise, investor returns additionally depend upon how a lot of the portfolio participates within the community and the way a lot of the ensuing reward is retained by intermediaries.
MSSE plans below regular market situations to stake between 50% and 80% of its Ethereum holdings. Its prospectus units 80% because the goal most whereas permitting the quantity to differ with redemption wants, community withdrawal instances and market liquidity.
MSOL is extra aggressive. The belief intends to stake as a lot as 100% of its SOL, whereas periodically conserving property unstaked to fulfill anticipated redemptions and different liquidity necessities.
Each funds intend to distribute web staking rewards in money month-to-month, however at the very least quarterly. Rewards accrue in ETH or SOL earlier than the trusts promote an equal quantity of the tokens to fund distributions to shareholders.
That method provides buyers entry to staking earnings via a standard brokerage product with out requiring them to custody tokens or work together immediately with validators.
Distribution assessments the incumbents’ head begin
Regardless of the decrease prices, Morgan Stanley nonetheless has a considerable hole to shut towards funds which have spent months or years accumulating property and liquidity.
Bitwise’s BSOL has attracted about $892 million of cumulative web inflows, accounting for many of the roughly $1.12 billion accrued throughout the Solana merchandise tracked by Farside.
BlackRock’s original ETHA product has drawn about $11.4 billion, whereas its newer staking-enabled ETHB has already attracted roughly $529 million.
These balances give the incumbent merchandise deeper buying and selling histories and established investor bases, benefits {that a} decrease charge doesn’t instantly erase.
Nonetheless, Morgan Stanley brings a unique benefit.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas described the brand new merchandise as essentially the most important additions to the ETH and Solana ETF markets since their preliminary launch, citing Morgan Stanley’s measurement and attain. The agency has nearly 16,000 monetary advisers overseeing about $2.6 trillion in mixed consumer property.
Its broader Wealth Administration enterprise ended 2025 with $7.4 trillion in consumer property and greater than 20 million consumer relationships.
Morgan Stanley has additionally recognized crypto and tokenization among the many product capabilities it intends to broaden as extra clients transfer between its E*TRADE, office and adviser-led channels.
The agency has been constructing the infrastructure round these ambitions. E*TRADE accomplished the rollout of direct Bitcoin, Ethereum and SOL buying and selling earlier this month, whereas Morgan Stanley has additionally created a referral arrangement with Galaxy Digital that permits eligible wealth purchasers to transform crypto publicity into shares of spot ETPs.
That distribution community provides MSSE and MSOL a path to buyers past the crypto-native viewers that helped set up a lot of their opponents.
