Financial services firm Morgan Stanley has partnered with Zerohash to offer cryptocurrency trading services on its E*Trade platform, a move signaling a closer integration between cryptocurrency and blockchain technology and traditional finance. Bloomberg was the first news outlet to report the partnership.
The update comes after Zerohash secured $104 million in funding through a series D round led by Interactive Brokers that saw support from Morgan Stanley and SoFi.
E*Trade will be competing with trading platforms that offer access to cryptocurrency for buying and selling, such as Robinhood and e-Toro.
The digital assets sector has also benefited from friendly legislation implemented by the Trump administration, with some opposition from key democrats who have alleged potential corruption due to the Trumps owning substantial investments in cryptocurrency.
Zerohash was created in 2017 and provides blockchain-based products and services for fintechs and financial services firms. The company’s official website says it has settled $50 billion in transaction volume, supporting 5 million customers and over 80 assets.
Source: Google Finance
Morgan Stanley shares were priced at $160.76 at the close of trading on Tuesday.
“Zerohash’s raise shows a clear shift. This isn’t the usual crypto VC money, it’s Wall Street players like Morgan Stanley and Apollo backing the rails that make stablecoin payments and tokenization work,” said principal consultant Lavneet Bansal.
“The fact that Morgan Stanley plans to lean on Zerohash for its E-Trade crypto rollout says a lot. Stablecoin infrastructure is moving from the edge of finance to the middle of it,” he also said