Morgan Stanley’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) began trading Wednesday with strong early activity, seeing more than 1.6 million shares traded and about $34 million in inflows, it said the bank.
The fund, listed under the ticker MSBT, tracks the 4:00 p.m. New York time settlement rate of the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark and applies an expense ratio of 0.14%. It is the cheapest fund in the category, offering a clear, albeit limited, pricing advantage over its competitors.
MSBT entered the market with a different strength than others: distribution. Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division oversees trillions of dollars in client assets and operates one of the industry’s largest networks of financial advisors. This reach could help the fund gain traction as more investors access bitcoin through advisors rather than direct trading platforms.
Some experts anticipate the fund will draw capital from existing products, particularly BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the largest spot bitcoin ETF currently on the market. MSBT has a lot of catching up to do. IBIT, launched among nine other ETFs in January 2024, has accumulated more than $53 billion in assets, quickly becoming the asset manager’s best-performing ETF.
Wednesday’s trading offers an early signal of demand, although it remains to be seen whether MSBT can maintain this momentum in a market dominated by a handful of large players.
UPDATE (April 8, 2026, 8:00 p.m. UTC): Adds additional details.
