Morgan Stanley debuts ultra-cheap crypto trading to challenge Coinbase and Robinhood

Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s top investment banks, has launched crypto trading on E*Trade, its brokerage unit, with fees set below those charged by Coinbase and Robinhood, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The service charges 50 basis points per trade. In comparison, Robinhood charges nearly double that at 95 basis points, while Coinbase takes 60 basis points. Charles Schwab, which announced its own crypto push last month, charges 75 basis points.

The service is currently in pilot mode, with all 8.6 million E*Trade account holders expected to get access before the end of the year, starting with Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana.

“This is much bigger than trading crypto at a cheaper rate,” said Jed Finn, who leads Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division. “In a way, the strategy is disintermediating the disintermediators.”

The rollout comes over a year after Morgan Stanley began evaluating crypto trading services, amid rising expectations of a more supportive regulatory environment under the Trump administration. Historically, E*Trade had no direct crypto trading offerings, relying instead on indirect exposure via ETFs, futures contracts, and crypto-related securities.

Several developments followed, all reflecting Morgan Stanley’s growing commitment to a market that has seen rising adoption among a small group of Wall Street players. More recently, the bank’s investment management arm launched the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT). Listed on NYSE Arca, the fund entered the market with a 0.14% expense ratio, deliberately priced below competing offerings from BlackRock and Fidelity to attract institutional inflows.

The launch is part of the firm’s strategy to expand across the crypto ecosystem as Wall Street firms increasingly compete with native exchanges. Executives argue that traditional finance and decentralized finance are converging, with Morgan Stanley embedding crypto capabilities across trading, wealth, and institutional services.

The expansion gained momentum after a shift in US policy direction under President Donald Trump, whose administration has taken a more crypto-friendly stance, encouraging banks to move into digital assets after years of regulatory hesitation.

This is a developing story.