Morgan Stanley’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) started buying and selling Wednesday with strong early exercise, logging greater than 1.6 million shares traded and roughly $34 million in inflows, the financial institution mentioned.
The fund, listed underneath the ticker MSBT, tracks the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark 4 PM New York Settlement Charge and expenses a 0.14% expense ratio. It’s the least expensive fund within the class, providing a transparent, if slender, pricing benefit to rivals.
MSBT entered the market with a unique power than others: distribution. Morgan Stanley’s wealth administration arm oversees trillions of {dollars} in consumer belongings and operates one of many largest monetary advisor networks within the trade. That attain may assist the fund acquire traction as extra traders entry bitcoin by way of advisors relatively than direct buying and selling platforms.
Some specialists anticipate the fund to draw capital from present merchandise, particularly BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Belief (IBIT), the biggest spot bitcoin ETF presently available on the market. MSBT has lots of catching as much as do. IBIT, which launched amongst 9 different ETFs in January 2024, has amassed over $53 billion in belongings, shortly changing into the asset supervisor’s most profitable ETF.
Wednesday’s buying and selling presents an early sign of demand, although it stays to be seen whether or not MSBT can maintain momentum in a market dominated by a handful of enormous gamers.
UPDATE (April 8, 2026, 20:00 UTC): Provides extra element.