Morgan Stanley’s new Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products generated a combined trading volume of about $38 million on their first day, giving the Wall Street firm an immediate presence in two crypto fund markets dominated by early entrants.
The Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (MSSE) recorded 933,715 shares traded on Tuesday and attracted $5.15 million in net inflows. The Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (MSOL) traded 951,216 shares, generating about $19 million in turnover but no net creation. Each product began trading on NYSE Arca at around $20 per share.
Data from SoSoValue shows that MSSE inflows accounted for more than a third of the approximately $14.5 million that entered US ETH funds during the session. BlackRock’s staking-enabled ETHB attracted $5.9 million, and its larger ETHA product added $3.5 million.
Meanwhile, the Solana market moved in the opposite direction, with the existing fund group losing $18.1 million as investors withdrew the entire BSOL amount from Bitwise.
The contrasting debut provides an initial test of how much market share Morgan Stanley can capture after entering both categories late. MSSE converted a significant portion of its first-day trades into new assets, while MSOL sparked comparable secondary market activity in a session that saw investors reduce their exposure to the broader Solana complex of funds.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management launched both products on July 28 as a continuation of a crypto line that began with the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust in April.
MSBT had accumulated more than $400 million in assets at press time despite entering a Bitcoin fund marketplace already led by BlackRock and Fidelity.
The new products also push Morgan Stanley beyond just cash exposure. Both can bet on their underlying assets, putting the company directly in growing competition over how much yield fund issuers return to investors.
Morgan Stanley lowers the prices of its competitors
Morgan Stanley enters this fight with one of the lowest management and staking fee combinations available in either market.
MSSE and MSOL each have an annual referral fee of 0.14%. Morgan Stanley will also take no direct share of its staking rewards, while custodians and staking providers are expected to receive a total of 5% of gross rewards. The remainder is retained by the trusts before distributions and applicable expenses.
This structure undermines several established competitors.
In Solana, Bitwise’s BSOL charges a 0.20% management fee and passes 6% of staking rewards to service providers. Grayscale’s GSOL charges 0.19% and gives up 7%, while Franklin Templeton’s SOEZ takes 8% of the staking rewards. Stake cuts amount to at least 10% at 21Shares, 15% at Fidelity and 25% at VanEck, according to data from Farside Investors.
The ETH market has a similar distribution, according to Farside data. Grayscale’s lower-cost ETH product has a 0.15% management fee and a 6% staking fee, while BlackRock’s ETHB has a stated sponsor fee of 0.25% and forgoes 10% of staking rewards.
Staking fees on 21Shares’ TETH product and Grayscale’s larger ETHE product are 25% and 23%, respectively.
BlackRock is temporarily undercutting Morgan Stanley’s overall ETHB management costs through a waiver that lowers its fees to 0.12% on the first $2.5 billion in assets for 12 months starting in March. Its standard rate remains 0.25%.
Morgan Stanley’s challenge therefore extends beyond a conventional ETF fee war. For staking products, investor returns also depend on how much of the wallet participates in the network and how much of the resulting reward is retained by the intermediaries.
MSSE plans, under normal market conditions, to hold between 50% and 80% of its holdings in Ethereum. Its prospectus sets a maximum target of 80% while allowing the amount to vary depending on redemption needs, network withdrawal times and market liquidity.
MSOL is more aggressive. The trust intends to stake up to 100% of its SOL, while periodically keeping assets unpledged to meet expected redemptions and other liquidity needs.
Both funds intend to distribute net cash stake rewards monthly, but at least quarterly. Rewards accumulate in ETH or SOL before the trusts sell an equivalent amount of tokens to fund distributions to shareholders.
This approach allows investors to access staking revenue through a traditional brokerage product without requiring them to hold tokens or interact directly with validators.
Distribution tests the advance of historical operators
Despite the drop in costs, Morgan Stanley still has a significant gap to close compared to funds that have spent months or years accumulating assets and cash.
Bitwise’s BSOL has attracted approximately $892 million in cumulative net inflows, accounting for the bulk of the approximately $1.12 billion accumulated in the Solana products tracked by Farside.
BlackRock’s original ETHA product has generated around $11.4 billion, while its new staking-enabled ETHB product has already attracted around $529 million.
These balances give legacy products deeper trading histories and established investor bases, advantages that a lower commission does not immediately erase.
However, Morgan Stanley brings a different advantage.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas described the new products as the most significant additions to the ETH and Solana ETF markets since their initial launch, citing Morgan Stanley’s size and reach. The company has nearly 16,000 financial advisors who oversee approximately $2.6 trillion in combined client assets.
Its broader wealth management business ended 2025 with $7.4 trillion in client assets and more than 20 million client relationships.
Morgan Stanley has also identified crypto and tokenization among the product capabilities it intends to expand as more clients move between its E*TRADE channels, workplace and advisors.
The company has built the infrastructure around these ambitions. E*TRADE completed the rollout of direct trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum and SOL earlier this month, while Morgan Stanley also created a referral agreement with Galaxy Digital that allows eligible wealth clients to convert their crypto exposure into shares of spot ETPs.
This distribution network gives MSSE and MSOL access to investors beyond the crypto-native audience that helped establish many of their competitors.
