Morgan Stanley Accelerates Wall Street’s Crypto Trading with E*Trade Integration
Morgan Stanley has confirmed plans to introduce cryptocurrency buying and selling for retail prospects on its E*Trade platform within the first half of 2026, partnering with digital asset infrastructure supplier Zerohash.
Wall Street establishments have made few commitments this massive to combine digital belongings into on a regular basis brokerage accounts.
Morgan Stanley Launches Retail Crypto Trading
Morgan Stanley introduced on September 23 that it could associate with Zerohash to launch a crypto buying and selling program for E*Trade shoppers, scheduled to start within the first half of 2026.
Under the settlement, E*Trade prospects will initially be capable of commerce Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana straight on the platform. Morgan Stanley executives emphasised that the service will combine totally. Users will get a single dashboard for each digital and conventional belongings.
“Clients anticipate unified entry to each main asset class, and crypto is not an exception,” stated Jed Finn, head of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, in an inner memo.
He added that the launch represents a pure evolution of the financial institution’s earlier experiments with Bitcoin funds and spot ETF entry.
The associate, Zerohash, which just lately crossed a $1 billion valuation following a $104 million fundraising spherical, will deal with custody and settlement. The Chicago-based startup already gives infrastructure to a number of fintechs and brokerages, providing banks a solution to deploy crypto buying and selling with out constructing in-house programs.
The initiative comes as conventional brokerages face mounting strain to adapt. Rivals reminiscent of Robinhood already generate vital income from crypto trades, whereas Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab are increasing their publicity by way of funds and derivatives.
Analysts say Morgan Stanley’s step into direct token buying and selling might reshape aggressive dynamics throughout the wealth administration sector.
Tokenization Could Reshape Wealth Management
The financial institution has additionally hinted at future pockets companies that might maintain not solely cryptocurrencies however tokenized variations of conventional belongings, together with bonds, equities, and actual property. Tokenization, or creating digital representations of belongings on blockchain, is anticipated to reinforce liquidity, allow sooner settlement, and permit buyers to handle each digital and conventional holdings seamlessly.
“Tokenized substitutes for money start paying curiosity as quickly because it hits the pockets,” Finn stated. “The remainder of the asset courses will observe go well with in looking for this effectivity.”
Such choices, if realized, would place Morgan Stanley on the forefront of blockchain-driven transformation in monetary companies.
Crypto markets stay risky, but the sheer dimension of digital asset capitalization—estimated close to $3.9 trillion—makes them tough for wealth managers to disregard. By embedding crypto buying and selling and exploring tokenization inside E*Trade, Morgan Stanley is betting that shoppers more and more anticipate a seamless mixture of each worlds, and that failing to ship might imply shedding the following technology of buyers.
Morgan Stanley Shares Rise on Investor Confidence
Since the US authorities’s strategy to cryptocurrency shifted after President Donald Trump took workplace, Morgan Stanley has been thought of among the many most proactive main banks in embracing digital belongings.
On the day, Morgan Stanley shares rose as a lot as 1.93% to $163.8 in early buying and selling earlier than retreating to their opening degree, in the end closing the session unchanged. Year-to-date, the inventory has gained 27.8%, reflecting sturdy investor confidence.
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