Morgan Stanley, which spent $13 billion to acquire E*Trade six years ago, now uses the platform to offer crypto trading at lower fees than its competitors.
The bank charges its customers 50 basis points (half a cent on every dollar traded) for crypto transactions on E*Trade. Robinhood charges nearly double that amount, at 95 basis points. Coinbase takes 60 basis points.
Charles Schwab, which announced its own crypto campaign last month, charges 75 basis points. The service is currently in pilot mode, and all 8.6 million E*Trade account holders are expected to have access before the end of the year, starting with Bitcoin, Ether and Solana.
“It’s much more important than trading cryptocurrencies at a lower rate,” said Jed Finn, who heads Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division. “In a way, strategy disintermediates the disintermediators. »
The launch is part of the company’s strategy to expand in the crypto ecosystem, as Wall Street firms increasingly compete with native exchanges. Executives argue that traditional finance and decentralized finance are converging, with Morgan Stanley integrating crypto capabilities into trading, wealth management and institutional services.
The expansion accelerated after a shift in U.S. policy direction under President Donald Trump, whose administration took a more crypto-friendly stance, encouraging banks to move into digital assets after years of regulatory hesitation.
This is a developing story.
