The big investment bank’s applications for Bitcoin and Solana ETFs stem from an increase in investor demand for regulated crypto investment vehicles, a trend attributed to the fresh start of the new year.
Morgan Stanley, a US investment bank, has asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission to let it establish two cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), one linked to Bitcoin and the other to Solana. This is part of Wall Street’s push into regulated digital-asset markets.
According to filings with the SEC on Tuesday, the proposed Morgan Stanley Bitcoin BTC$93,859 Trust and the Morgan Stanley Solana SOL$139.06 Trust will be “passive investment” vehicles that hold and track the performance of the underlying tokens.
The two funds want to offer their shares on public markets, which is generally mentioned in subsequent 19b-4 filings and not in the first S-1 forms.
Source: SEC.gov
Fund structure and custody details
Morgan Stanley’s financial management division serves around 19 million clients as of April 2025. If the funds are approved, they might attract fresh money into Bitcoin and Solana.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs brought in $1.1 billion in fresh money on the first two trading days of 2026. Analysts said this was because of the “clean-slate effect” of the new year.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management is the sponsor for two of the proposed trusts. The Delaware trustee is the CSC Delaware Trust Company. The initial documentation didn’t completely list all of the key service providers, such as some custodial arrangements. Morgan Stanley indicated that it would hold “a substantial portion of the private keys” in cold storage and “the rest” in hot wallets.
The two funds won’t try to make money by doing anything other than watching the price of the underlying asset. This means that the sponsor won’t “speculatively sell” the spot tokens.
Wall Street adds more regulated crypto
Morgan Stanley’s ETF filings show that more and more institutions are interested in regulated cryptocurrency investment vehicles.
The bank’s richest clients can now get into Bitcoin ETFs through this move. The firm has over 15,000 wealth advisers on its Merrill, Bank of America Private firm, and Merrill Edge platforms who can propose them.