Morgan Stanley launches 0.5% crypto trading on E*Trade

Morgan Stanley has begun offering direct cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade brokerage at a 0.5% per-trade fee. A limited pilot is live for a small group of clients, and the bank plans to make the service available to all 8.6 million E*Trade accounts in 2026.

The pilot supports Bitcoin, Ether and Solana. Custody, liquidity and settlement for the new trading service are handled by Zerohash, a Chicago-based crypto infrastructure firm in which Morgan Stanley holds a minority stake. Mastercard has moved to acquire Zerohash in a deal reported near $2 billion.

The 50-basis-point transaction fee is lower than several retail rivals. Charles Schwab charges about 75 basis points for its spot Bitcoin and Ether trading. Coinbase’s retail fees vary by account tier and payment method and can exceed 50 basis points. Robinhood advertises commission-free crypto trading but typically earns through spreads that industry data place roughly between 35 and 95 basis points per trade. Fidelity’s separate crypto product charges about 1% per trade.

E*Trade gives Morgan Stanley a wide retail distribution channel. The firm’s roughly 16,000 in-house financial advisors oversee about $9.3 trillion in client assets, creating internal channels to promote the trading product as access expands.

The brokerage rollout follows Morgan Stanley’s April launch of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund with a 0.14% expense ratio and filings for Bitcoin, Ether and Solana ETFs.

The pilot will test trade execution, custody arrangements and client demand ahead of the planned 2026 rollout to the full E*Trade customer base.