E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley announced on July 16, 2026, the completion of the rollout of spot crypto trading, allowing eligible clients to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana directly on the platform through a partnership with digital asset infrastructure provider Zero Hash.
What Happened and Why It Matters
Trades carry a 50-basis-point fee, and clients can view their crypto holdings alongside traditional investments in one place, though transfer functionality to move crypto in or out of the account isn’t expected until later this year.
In terms of how custody works, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC does not itself transact in or custody digital assets. All crypto transactions and custody occur in a separate, non-brokerage account held in the client’s own name at Zero Hash, entirely outside of Morgan Stanley, and those holdings are not FDIC-insured or SIPC-protected the way traditional brokerage assets are.
Zero Hash LLC and its affiliates are licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Morgan Stanley has also said digital asset services will eventually transition to a newly forming entity, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association, currently listed as “in organization.”
Chad Turner, Head of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Platforms, said the rollout advances the firm’s “digital assets strategy” and brings “new capabilities to clients in an integrated way.”
Matt Jones, Head of E*TRADE, framed it as meeting evolving client needs. “They want to invest, trade, bank, and plan for the future all in one place,” he said, adding that clients get “the confidence and trust that comes from being part of Morgan Stanley.”
A Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Pulse Survey conducted in April 2026 among 940 self-directed and advised investors found that trust in an established company was the top factor investors weigh when choosing a crypto trading platform, cited by 32%, ahead of seeing crypto alongside traditional holdings at 26% and low fees at 25%.
For readers weighing custody tradeoffs across different crypto access points, our guide on crypto wallets covers how self-custody compares to holding assets through a third-party platform like this one.
The Bigger Picture
This launch caps roughly a year of building. Morgan Stanley first disclosed plans to bring Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana trading to E*TRADE through Zero Hash in September 2025.
In January 2026, the firm filed SEC registration statements for spot Bitcoin and Solana ETFs.
Then, in April 2026, it said it was exploring tokenization, tokenized money market funds, and tax-management tools for digital assets, and later that month introduced a money market fund designed to help stablecoin issuers manage reserves under the GENIUS Act. Readers wanting a primer on the ETF side of that strategy can find one in our guide on 5 things Bitcoin ETF investors should know.
What Comes Next
Crypto transfer functionality, letting clients move existing holdings into or out of their linked Zero Hash account rather than only buying and selling within it, is expected later in 2026.
What this means for you: this gives existing E*TRADE and Morgan Stanley clients a more integrated way to hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana alongside their brokerage accounts, but the assets sit in a separate, differently protected account structure than traditional securities, a distinction worth understanding before treating this as equivalent to holding crypto in cold storage or on a dedicated exchange.
Disclosure: The writer holds Bitcoin, one of the three assets directly covered by this story.
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