Catenaa, Wednesday, January 14, 2026- Morgan Stanley has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund, expanding its crypto offerings a day after submitting filings for Bitcoin and Solana ETFs.
The S-1 registration statement details the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust, which would hold ether and aim to track its price while also generating rewards from staking a portion of the fund’s holdings.
The fund plans to reflect staking rewards in its net asset value rather than distributing them directly to shareholders, differing from some rivals that pay staking income.
These filings mark three crypto ETF proposals from Morgan Stanley in roughly 24 hours, signaling the bank’s accelerated push into digital assets.
The filings follow earlier moves to cap crypto exposure in select portfolios and expand client access, including retirement accounts.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have already drawn substantial institutional trading since their 2024 launch, with cumulative U.S. volumes exceeding $2 trillion.
Spot Ethereum ETFs are smaller but growing, currently holding about $20 billion in assets, according to SoSoValue analytics.
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts called the filings a surprise given their rapid succession, highlighting the bank’s strategic effort to capture the rising institutional demand for regulated crypto investment vehicles.
Morgan Stanley joins other major financial institutions seeking to offer Ethereum exposure in a structure designed to integrate staking returns into fund valuations.
The proposed Ethereum ETF complements Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin and Solana filings, reflecting a broader trend of wealth managers expanding crypto product offerings to meet client demand.
