This bitcoin ETF would stand out for its low management fees.
As with most bitcoin ETFs, Coinbase will be one of the custodians.
Morgan Stanley’s bitcoin ETF would be about to hit the market. This was indicated this Wednesday by Eric Balchunas, exchange-traded fund analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, who reported that the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) received an official listing announcement from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). According to Balchunas, this administrative step usually immediately precedes the debut of a fund on the market.
The notification comes 8 days after Morgan Stanley filed, on March 17, the second amendment to its S-1 form with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In that document, The bank confirmed its intention to list the fund on NYSE Arca under the symbol MSBT.
The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust is a spot ETF: holds bitcoin in custody as a direct backup of its actions, and seeks to replicate the performance of the asset using the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate as a reference.
As reported by CriptoNoticias in the previous publication about this ETF, The custody of the bitcoin will be in charge of Coinbase Custody Trust Company and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY). Both institutions operate under cold storage schemes with assets segregated from the custodians’ own assets.
One of the points that generates the most expectations in the market is the commission that the fund will charge. Balchunas commented that these are 0.24% year-on-yearone basis point below BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) rate, currently at 0.25%. The final figure will be known in the coming days.
Fee is a determining factor in this segment: Bitcoin spot ETFs compete in a market where BlackRock dominates with $56 billion in assets under management and a daily trading volume close to $1.75 billion.
With the MSBT, Morgan Stanley would join a group of managers that already offer exposure to bitcoin through spot ETFs in the United States, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, ARK 21Shares, VanEck and Franklin Templeton.
The entry of one of the world’s largest investment banks into the bitcoin ETF segment reinforces the trend of institutional adoption of the asset and adds competitive pressure on existing fundsespecially with regard to the commission structure.