Morgan Stanley Ignites Crypto ETF Fee War With Record-Low 0.14% Charge

Morgan Stanley set a 0.14% fee for its proposed Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) exchange-traded funds, undercutting every U.S. rival.

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Morgan Stanley Files Record-Low ETF Fees

Morgan Stanley filed amended Form S-1 statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Jun. 18, for two proposed spot crypto funds. The paperwork named them the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust, set to trade as MSSE and MSOL once the SEC clears them. Each fund would carry a 0.14% annual sponsor fee, charged daily against net asset value and paid out monthly in cash.

That price would undercut the cheapest spot products on the U.S. market today by a clear margin in both categories. Grayscale's Mini Ethereum Trust charges 0.15% on Ether, while Franklin Templeton's fund holds the lowest Solana rate at 0.19%.

It was the second amendment since the bank first applied in January, and such updates often signal that a regulatory decision is near. Earlier filings added structural details, but this round set the fee for the first time. Approval would create the country's 11th spot Ether ETF and its seventh spot Solana ETF, extending the firm's broader crypto buildout.

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Balchunas Calls Fees Cheapest Worldwide

Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas said on X that the 14-basis-point fee makes both products the cheapest in the United States and the world. Cheap pricing has become the bank's main lever as it enters a field long led by BlackRock and Fidelity.

Existing Ether funds from those firms generally carry fees in the 0.20% to 0.30% range, leaving room to compete. The amendments also detailed how the trusts will stake part of their holdings to earn extra yield. Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure and Coinbase Canada will run that service for both products.

Each fund would keep 95% of the staking rewards and pass the remaining 5% to those providers and custodians. The feature could help the trusts stand out in an increasingly crowded ETF field.

The push follows the bank's Bitcoin (BTC) fund, listed as MSBT, which launched in April at the same 0.14% fee. That product opened with a $30.6 million first-day inflow and has since drawn more than $300 million. Those totals already top funds from Invesco, Franklin Templeton and CoinShares, which all began trading in 2024, well before Morgan Stanley's April debut.

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