Morgan Stanley disclosed the fee structure for its proposed spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund in an amended S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The fund will charge a 0.14% annualized "Delegated Sponsor Fee," which would make MSBT the lowest-cost spot bitcoin ETF on the market.

The pricing puts Morgan Stanley one basis point below Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF, currently the cheapest U.S. spot bitcoin fund at 0.15%, not counting fee waivers from other funds. It also undercuts BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, which leads the field by assets under management (AUM), and Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, both at 0.25%.

Expand Chart

If approved, MSBT would be the first spot bitcoin ETF issued directly by a major U.S. bank, and the first new entrant in the category since roughly a dozen funds launched in January 2024, besides Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust. Morgan Stanley first filed for both a spot bitcoin and a spot Solana ETF in January 2026, a move Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart called a "shocker" at the time.

The fund has progressed quickly since then. Morgan Stanley named Coinbase and BNY Mellon as custodians in an earlier amendment, with Coinbase serving as prime broker and BNY handling cash custody and administration. A subsequent filing confirmed the MSBT ticker, a 10,000-share basket size, and a $1 million seed investment. The NYSE issued a listing notice earlier this week, a step that typically precedes a launch.

Seyffart reacted to Friday's fee disclosure on X, writing that Morgan Stanley is "not messing around." Fellow Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas called the move "smart," noting that the low fee means none of Morgan Stanley's roughly 16,000 financial advisors, who oversee approximately $9.3 trillion in client assets, would face conflicts in recommending the product.

That distribution network is central to the strategy. Morgan Stanley's head of digital asset strategy, Amy Oldenburg, said earlier this month that about 80% of crypto ETF activity on the bank's platform comes from self-directed investors rather than advisor-managed accounts. A proprietary product priced below every competitor could help shift that balance by removing the cost objection that might otherwise discourage advisors from recommending a bitcoin allocation.

Spot bitcoin ETFs all hold bitcoin directly and track its market price, making fees one of the few meaningful differentiators. Small cost gaps have historically driven asset migration in the category; Grayscale's flagship Bitcoin Trust, which charges 1.5%, has seen its assets fall from roughly $29 billion at its January 2024 ETF conversion to about $13 billion, per The Block's data.

Expand Chart

Morgan Stanley has not disclosed a fee structure for its separate Solana ETF application, and that filing has not been amended, suggesting the bitcoin product is the more immediate priority.