Late last year, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) shared its plans to integrate cryptocurrency trading directly into ETrade, a leading online brokerage, in partnership with ZeroHash.
This week, trading became reality as Etrade started offering trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Currently in a pilot phase, crypto trading is expected to fully deploy to all 8.6 million users later this year. Etrade states that it is offering a competitive 50-basis-point fees.
Warren Kornfeld, senior vice president in Moody’s Ratings Financial Institutions Group, commented on the news regarding crypto trading.
“The firm has been rapidly expanding its crypto footprint, including the launch of its first Bitcoin ETF and planned expansion into additional crypto ETFs, alongside its application for a national bank charter to custody digital assets—underscoring a deliberate push to integrate digital assets into its core platform,” said Kornfeld. “While this expansion introduces operational and reputational risks, it reflects the accelerating convergence of traditional finance and decentralized finance and positions Morgan Stanley to capture new revenue opportunities across digital asset markets.”
Demand played the biggest role in deciding to offer crypto trading. Millions of individuals are already trading crypto elsewhere and it would be negligent not to offer these services on the Etrade platform.
At the same time, the future is clear that users want to be able to use a single app to manage all of their financial needs, including crypto, traditional securities and banking services. If a platform does not offer a combined platform, they will see customers move elsewhere over time.
