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 Price and fees a 0.14% expense ratio. It’s the most cost-effective fund within the class, providing a transparent, if slender, pricing benefit to rivals.
MSBT entered the market with a unique energy than others: distribution. Morgan Stanley’s wealth administration arm oversees trillions of {dollars} in shopper property and operates one of many largest monetary advisor networks within the trade. That attain might assist the fund acquire traction as extra traders entry bitcoin by means of advisors relatively than direct buying and selling platforms.
Some specialists anticipate the fund to attract capital from current merchandise, particularly BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Belief (IBIT), the most important spot bitcoin ETF at present available on the market. MSBT has loads of catching as much as do. IBIT, which launched amongst 9 different ETFs in January 2024, has amassed over $53 billion in property, shortly turning into the asset supervisor’s most profitable ETF.
Wednesday’s buying and selling affords 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 further element.