Morgan Stanley is expanding its digital assets push by rolling out crypto trading on its E*Trade platform, positioning the offering as a lower-cost option compared to established retail crypto services.
The bank is currently running a pilot project that charges E*Trade users a fee of 50 basis points on the value of the transaction, according to Bloomberg. That’s a significantly lower cost than other major players, including Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab, which charge between 60 and 95 basis points.
Jed Finn, head of wealth management at Morgan Stanley, said the initiative goes beyond offering cheaper crypto trading and aims to “disintermediate the disintermediators”, presenting it as a broader structural change in the way clients access digital assets.
The investment banking giant plans to roll out the service to all 8.6 million ETrade customers later this year.
The latest offering builds on a series of crypto-related moves in recent months, including the launch of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, with planned products tied to ether and solana. Morgan Stanley has also advanced its infrastructure efforts, applying for a national trust bank charter that would allow it to directly custody digital assets.
Sources told Bloomberg that the bank is also mulling services to convert crypto holdings into exchange-traded products without sales and is preparing for possible tokenized stock transactions later this year.
The moves are expected to amplify competition in a market where Coinbase generated $3.32 billion in consumer transaction revenue in 2025, while Robinhood reported nearly $1 billion in crypto-related revenue.
