Morgan Stanley cuts E*Trade crypto fees to 0.5%

Morgan Stanley will offer Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana on its E*Trade platform at a 0.5% fee, with a staged rollout for the platform’s 8.6 million customers. The three tokens will be available first, and broader access is scheduled later this year.

The 50 basis point fee is lower than recent retail pricing at major competitors: about 60 basis points at Coinbase, 75 basis points at Charles Schwab and 95 basis points at Robinhood. Morgan Stanley executives described the pricing as aimed at cost-conscious retail investors entering the digital-asset market through an established brokerage.

The bank is using its $13 billion acquisition of E*Trade to add cryptocurrency trading to an existing retail channel rather than operating crypto as a separate product. Customers will be able to hold crypto alongside other investments on a single platform as the bank integrates digital-asset services with its wealth and brokerage infrastructure.

Morgan Stanley filed for a national trust bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Feb. 18. The charter application would allow the firm to custody digital assets and offer trading and staking services inside a bank-supervised environment if approved.

The firm is preparing filings for spot Bitcoin and Solana exchange-traded funds and is exploring a service to convert crypto holdings into ETFs without triggering a taxable sale. People familiar with the plans say the bank is also preparing for possible tokenized equity trading later this year.

In 2025, Coinbase reported $3.32 billion in consumer transaction revenue and Robinhood reported roughly $1 billion in crypto-related revenue. Morgan Stanley executives noted the bank’s pricing and custody efforts will operate alongside its ETF and tokenization initiatives.

The rollout will be phased, with full availability for all E*Trade clients planned later this year. Morgan Stanley declined to provide specific timing for additional product releases or details about how ETF conversions and tokenized equity trading would work.

Jed Finn, a Morgan Stanley wealth management executive, framed the crypto offering as a gateway into a wider set of digital-asset services, stating ‘We want to disintermediate the disintermediators.’