Morgan Stanley’s Latest Step Into Crypto: Files For Bitcoin And Solana ETFs
On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley, one in every of Wall Street’s premier banking establishments, introduced that it has submitted preliminary filings for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) targeted on Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL).
These filings are actually awaiting approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has just lately adopted a extra favorable stance towards cryptocurrencies below Chair Paul Atkins, appointed by President Trump final yr.
Morgan Stanley’s Latest Filings
In the submitted filing, Morgan Stanley outlined its plans for a Bitcoin Trust and a Solana Trust, every designed to carry the respective cryptocurrencies.
Notably, the Solana product will embrace an allocation for staking, a course of that allows holders to earn rewards by permitting their tokens for use to help the blockchain community. These trusts will probably be sponsored by Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc., in accordance with the filings.
This newest transfer by Morgan Stanley follows its decision in October 2025 to empower its monetary advisers to supply crypto investments to shoppers throughout varied account sorts.
In a paper revealed by the financial institution’s Global Investment Committee, a advice emerged suggesting that shoppers contemplate a most crypto allocation of 4%.
The committee characterised cryptocurrencies, significantly Bitcoin, as a speculative but more and more fashionable asset class, likening Bitcoin to a scarce useful resource akin to “digital gold.”
Growing Institutional Interest
The launch of the Bitcoin and Solana exchange-traded funds is a big transfer towards increasing Morgan Stanley’s presence within the cryptocurrency business, which is broadly regarded by conventional monetary establishments as a monetary sector with super development potential.
This growth comes two years after the Securities and Exchange Commission approval of the primary US-listed spot Bitcoin change traded fund, propelling institutional interest in digital assets.
The backdrop of rising regulatory readability below US President Donald Trump has additional inspired conventional finance corporations to diversify into digital property, which had been beforehand considered primarily as speculative investments.
The current appointment of Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto advocate, as head of the SEC, alongside the company’s current regulatory strikes in the direction of digital property, means that the approval course of for these new crypto ETFs may very well be beneficial and well timed.
Additionally, in December, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted banks the flexibility to behave as intermediaries for cryptocurrency transactions. This regulatory shift suggests a narrowing divide between the traditional monetary sector and the burgeoning world of digital property.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin has managed to carry onto the positive factors seen on Monday, when it briefly surged in the direction of a two-month high of $94,800. Currently, the market’s main cryptocurrency is making an attempt to consolidate at $93,920.
Similarly, Solana has climbed again above $142, marking a big 14% enhance over the previous seven days. However, this nonetheless leaves the altcoin 51% beneath its all-time high of $293 reached final yr.
Featured picture from Reuters, chart from TradingView.com
