Update January 6, 12:57 UTC: This article has been updated to incorporate a paragraph about Morgan Stanley's previous involvement in cryptocurrency funds.
US investment bank Morgan Stanley has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch two cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), one tied to Bitcoin and the opposite to Solana, as Wall Street firms push deeper into regulated digital asset products.
The proposed Morgan Stanley Bitcoin (BTC) Trust and Morgan Stanley Solana (SOL) Trust will act as “passive investment” vehicles that hold the underlying tokens and track their performance, in response to filings with the SEC on Tuesday.
The two funds seek to list their shares on public exchanges, that are typically disclosed in subsequent 19b-4 filings quite than in the unique S-1 forms.
If approved, the funds could bring latest inflows into Bitcoin and Solana from April 2025 from Morgan Stanley's over 19 million customers served through its asset management division, the corporate's letter to shareholders said.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $1.1 billion in inflows in the primary two trading days of 2026 as analysts pointed to renewed appetite for digital assets on account of the brand new yr's “clean slate effect.”
Morgan Stanley S-1 files for Bitcoin Trust. Source: SEC.gov
Morgan Stanley Investment Management is listed as a sponsor for each proposed trusts. CSC Delaware Trust Company is known as because the Delaware trustee. Key service providers, including certain custody arrangements, weren’t fully laid out in the preliminary documents. Morgan Stanley said it should keep a “good portion of personal keys” in cold storage, while a “remainder” can be held in hot wallets.
The two funds don’t seek returns beyond tracking the worth of the underlying asset, meaning the sponsor doesn’t sell the spot tokens “speculatively.”
Morgan Stanley, together with other major financial institutions, has deepened its involvement within the cryptocurrency industry.
In October, the asset manager reportedly allowed its financial advisors to recommend crypto funds to clients with individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)s, marking a big policy shift from previously restricting access to high-net-worth individuals with assets over $1.5 million.
Wall Street expands regulated cryptocurrencies
Morgan Stanley's ETF filings add to growing institutional interest in regulated cryptocurrency investment vehicles.
This comes a day after the second-largest U.S. bank, Bank of America, began allowing advisors in its asset management businesses to recommend exposure to 4 Bitcoin ETFs, Cointelegraph reported on Monday.
The move allows the bank's wealthiest customers to realize access to Bitcoin ETFs, which might now be really helpful by the bank's over 15,000 wealth advisors on its Merrill, Bank of America Private Bank and Merrill Edge platforms.
Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, allowed its clients to trade crypto ETFs in December 2025, a yr after BlackRock really helpful a Bitcoin allocation of as much as 2% to its clients, the primary major financial institution to accomplish that, Cointelegraph reported in December 2024.
