Morgan Stanley Files S-1 for Own Bitcoin ETF
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Morgan Stanley filed an amended S-1 with the SEC for the MSBT Bitcoin ETF, moving from distributing BlackRock's IBIT to issuing its own product and capturing management fees directly rather than earning distribution commissions, per RedStone co-founder Marcin Kazmierczak.
- The bank's 15,000 financial advisors will provide "distribution muscle" for the ETF, Kazmierczak told Cointelegraph.
- On Jan. 5, 2026, Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, began allowing wealth management advisers to recommend exposure to four Bitcoin ETFs that were previously only available upon request.
- Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, enabled crypto ETF trading for its clients a day earlier, reversing its previous stance against digital asset ETFs.
- BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, recommended an up to 2% Bitcoin allocation to its clients in December 2024.
- The move is part of a broader push by large US financial institutions to expand access to crypto-related products, from request-only products to actively recommended portfolio allocations.
Why it matters: Morgan Stanley transitioning from IBIT distributor to MSBT issuer means the bank collects the ETF's management fees rather than BlackRock, and its 15,000 advisors — among the largest advisor networks on Wall Street — give the product institutional reach smaller crypto-native issuers cannot match. The filing lands alongside Bank of America and Vanguard opening up Bitcoin ETF access in the same week, turning crypto exposure from a request-only product into a standard wealth-management offering at the country's biggest banks.
Ask SkimNews
