Morgan Stanley submitted a second amended S-1 registration statement to the SEC on March 19, 2026, for the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, a spot Bitcoin ETF that will trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker MSBT. If approved, it would be the first spot Bitcoin ETF issued directly by a major US bank.
Bitcoin was trading at $70,467 as of March 20, 2026, down 0.8% over 24 hours, with the Fear & Greed Index at 31 (Fear).
From Distributor to Issuer
Morgan Stanley has been inching toward direct Bitcoin exposure for years. The bank allowed its 15,000 financial advisors to recommend Bitcoin ETFs from other issuers starting in 2024. It added Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana trading through E*TRADE in September 2025. In February 2026, it hired Amy Oldenburg to lead digital asset strategy.
The MSBT filing completes that arc. Rather than collecting distribution fees on BlackRock's IBIT or Fidelity's FBTC, Morgan Stanley now wants its own management fees from the roughly $9 trillion in client assets it oversees.
The initial S-1 was filed in January 2026 alongside applications for a Solana Trust and an Ethereum ETF. The Bitcoin product has moved fastest, with two amendments already submitted. The Solana and Ethereum filings have not been updated.
Three Custodians, One Fee Waiver
The amended filing names three custodians: Coinbase Custody Trust Company as the primary Bitcoin custodian, Fidelity as a secondary custodian (newly added in this amendment), and the Bank of New York Mellon handling cash custody, administration, and transfer agent duties.
Shares will be priced daily using the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark, specifically the 4:00 PM New York settlement rate, which aggregates trade data from major spot exchanges.
Morgan Stanley will seed the fund with an initial creation basket of 50,000 shares, expected to raise approximately $1 million in proceeds to acquire Bitcoin before trading begins.
The fund will waive fees on the first $5 billion invested for six months. The ongoing management fee has not been disclosed in the filing, though analysts estimate it will land between 0.20% and 0.30%, in line with the 0.25% charged by both BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC.
What $9 Trillion in Distribution Means
The competitive angle is straightforward. IBIT currently holds approximately $55 billion in assets and dominates weekly ETF inflows, accounting for 78% of all net Bitcoin ETF inflows during the week of March 9-13. Fidelity's FBTC is the second-largest. Both built their positions during the 2024-2025 wave that pulled $35 billion into spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Morgan Stanley does not need to win on product design. MSBT will hold Bitcoin and track its price, the same structure as every other spot Bitcoin ETF. The difference is the distribution channel. With 15,000 advisors already cleared for crypto recommendations and $1.8 trillion in wealth management assets under direct advice, Morgan Stanley can route existing client allocations into its own product rather than competitors'.
That distribution advantage matters because the easy inflow era may be slowing. US crypto ETFs have seen roughly $32 million in net outflows year-to-date in 2026, a sharp reversal from the momentum of the prior two years. MSBT will launch into a market where capturing share means pulling assets from IBIT and FBTC, not riding a rising tide.
126 Applications and Counting
Morgan Stanley's filing arrives as the SEC processes 126 pending crypto-related applications, ranging from spot altcoin ETFs to tokenized fund wrappers. The current SEC leadership under Chair Paul Atkins has been more receptive to crypto products than previous administrations, recently classifying 17 crypto assets as digital commodities and proposing a token safe harbor for startups.
No approval timeline has been set for MSBT. The amended S-1 is a procedural step, not a guarantee, but the filing's level of detail (named custodians, specific ticker, pricing methodology, fee waiver terms) signals that Morgan Stanley expects approval and is preparing for a near-term launch.
Overview
Morgan Stanley filed its second amended S-1 for a spot Bitcoin ETF that will trade as MSBT on NYSE Arca. The fund uses Coinbase Custody, Fidelity, and BNY Mellon as custodians, prices shares via the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark, and will waive fees on the first $5 billion invested for six months. If approved, it would be the first spot Bitcoin ETF from a major US bank, giving Morgan Stanley's 15,000 advisors a proprietary product to recommend alongside (or instead of) BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC.
