The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) will boast the lowest fees among the BTC ETFs, except Van Eck’s fund, which has a fee waiver, when it launches. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas described the low fees as a smart move as the bank looks to rival BlackRock’s IBIT, which is the largest Bitcoin ETFs.
Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF To Have Lowest Fees Upon Launch
In an X post, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas drew attention to the fact that the bank plans to charge a management fee of 0.14% for its Bitcoin ETF. The ETF will boast the lowest fees among the BTFs upon launch, notably lower than Grayscale’s Mini Bitcoin Trust, which has a management fee of 0.15%.
As Balchunas noted, the 0.14% fee for the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF will be 0.11% lower than BlackRock’s IBIT, which has a management fee of 0.25%. The Bloomberg analyst stated that this means that none of the bank’s advisors will feel conflicted about using the bank’s BTC ETF and that the fund could also attract outside assets with this low fee.
The analyst further described this as a smart move. He had earlier praised Morgan Stanley’s decision to file for a Bitcoin ETF, noting that it made sense, given that the Wall Street giant had about $8 trillion in advisory assets and had already approved clients’ allocations to Bitcoin funds.
As CoinGape reported, Morgan Stanley already filed an amended prospectus with the SEC, with key details such as the ticker and exchange. The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF will trade on the NYSE Arca under the ticker ‘MSFT.’ Notably, this will be the first Bitcoin ETF issued by a bank.
Fund Likely To Launch In April
Balchunas said that the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF will probably launch in the next two weeks. The analyst previously pointed out that the BTC ETF already got an official listing from the NYSE, which typically means that a launch is imminent.
The ETF’s imminent launch comes at a time when the BTC ETFs are seeing mixed flows amid the Bitcoin price downtrend. Balchunas reiterated that this particular launch is “interesting” because it will be the first bank to put out a spot Bitcoin ETF, and that they happen to have 16,000 advisors managing $6 trillion in assets. “They are the ultimate gatekeepers of rich boomer money,” he added.
Commenting on the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF fee, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart described it as a “big move.” He also noted that the bank has filed for Ethereum and Solana ETFs and that this move may indicate that the fees on those funds are about to undercut the market as well.