Morgan Stanley Becomes First Major Bank to Issue Bitcoin, Solana ETFs

Key Highlights

Morgan Stanley is the first “Big Six” U.S. bank to file for proprietary spot crypto ETFs.
Morgan Stanley filed S-1s for the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust and Morgan Stanley Solana Trust.

Morgan Stanley (MS) officially entered the crypto-issuer race, submitting S-1 filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch spot Bitcoin and Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

On January 6, Morgan Stanley marks a historic milestone as it becomes the first major U.S. bank to transition from a custodian and advisor to a direct issuer of cryptocurrency-linked investment products.

The filings, submitted on Tuesday by Morgan Stanley Investment Management, reveal a two-pronged strategy targeting the market’s leading assets. According to the filing, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust is designed as a passive vehicle holding BTC directly, and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust introduces a yield-bearing component.

According to the other filing, Solana product plans to stake a portion of its holdings, allowing staking rewards to accrue to the fund’s Net Asset Value (NAV)—a feature that distinguishes it from several existing spot Bitcoin products.

Pending regulatory approval, the fund’s shares will be listed on a national securities exchange under a ticker symbol that remains undisclosed at this time.

Share creation and redemption are restricted to authorized participants transacting in large-scale blocks, facilitated through either cash or in-kind exchanges. For cash-based settlements, the sponsor will manage execution via designated third-party Bitcoin liquidity providers.

Strategic Shift in Mainstream Finance

This filing is the culmination of a broader digital asset evolution for the bank. In October 2025, Morgan Stanley expanded crypto access to all client tiers, and its Global Investment Committee currently recommends a 2% to 4% portfolio allocation to digital assets for diversified accounts.

The filing by Morgan Stanley comes as the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market reaches a new level of maturity. With total net assets hitting $123 billion, these products now account for 6.57% of the total Bitcoin supply. This institutional appetite remains robust at the start of the new year, with SoSoValue reporting over $1.1 billion in fresh capital entering these funds since January 1st.

Following the expansion of crypto access in October 2025, Morgan Stanley is now using its own ETFs to vertically integrate these products. This allows the bank to keep management fees in-house, rather than outsourcing those revenues to rival fund managers.

The regulatory landscape has played a pivotal role in this timing. Under the current administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently clarified that banks can act as intermediaries in crypto transactions.

This narrowing gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) has encouraged peers like Bank of America to allow wealth advisors to recommend crypto allocations without asset thresholds.