Morgan Stanley to support trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana via E*TRADE

Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley plans to offer digital asset (cryptocurrency) trading services through the online brokerage platform E*TRADE starting in the first half of next year.

On the 24th (local time), Decrypt reported that Morgan Stanley will cooperate with digital asset and stablecoin infrastructure provider ZeroHash to initially support trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. It plans to expand the service to other digital assets in the future and introduce its own wallet service.

Jed Finn, head of Morgan Stanley's wealth management division, told Bloomberg in an interview, "Blockchain-based infrastructure is already in place, and clients should be able to use digital assets, traditional assets and virtual assets all within a familiar ecosystem."

Morgan Stanley has been pursuing an expansion of digital asset services in recent years. In 2021 it offered a Bitcoin investment fund to high-net-worth clients, and last year it approved the sale of a spot Bitcoin ETF. In the second quarter of this year, online brokerage Robinhood recorded $160 million in cryptocurrency trading revenue, intensifying competition across the industry.

Edward Woodford, CEO of ZeroHash, said, "Morgan Stanley's strategic investment demonstrates the central role that infrastructure plays in digital finance," adding, "this partnership is an important advancement in deploying digital asset technology to institutions and investors worldwide."

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley also participated in Hashdex's recent Series D funding round valued at $104 million, actively moving to expand the digital asset ecosystem.