Morgan Stanley launches E*Trade crypto at 50 bps — cheaper than Coinbase, Robinhood, and Schwab!

Morgan Stanley is rolling out crypto trading on E*Trade at 50 basis points per transaction — meaningfully below the 60–95 bps charged by Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab. The pilot is currently live, with a full rollout to all 8.6 million E*Trade customers planned later this year.

Head of Wealth Management Jed Finn framed the move as "disintermediating the disintermediators" — a signal this isn't just a fee war but a structural play for how retail clients access digital assets. The bank already has a Bitcoin ETF live, with Ether and Solana products in the pipeline, and has applied for a national trust bank charter to enable direct custody.

Morgan Stanley is also exploring crypto-to-ETF conversions without forced selling and potential tokenized equity trading — moves that would put it in direct competition with platforms that collectively generated over $4 billion in crypto…