Morgan Stanley’s bitcoin ETF opens today, giving BlackRock’s $55 billion IBIT fund its toughest rival yet
While BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF currently reigns as the liquidity king of crypto, Morgan Stanley’s MSBT will leverage a market-low 0.14% fee and $7 trillion wealth management engine to possibly challenge that dominance.
What to know:
- Morgan Stanley has launched the MSBT spot bitcoin ETF with a 0.14% fee, undercutting BlackRock’s dominant IBIT fund, which charges 0.25%.
- While IBIT remains the most liquid bitcoin ETF with about $55 billion in assets and leading trading and options volume, Morgan Stanley’s vast wealth management network could steer new flows toward MSBT.
- The new fund accelerates a shift in the market toward fee competition and distribution power, posing the first sustained challenge to IBIT’s grip on investor inflows.
Morgan Stanley’s ETF, trading under MSBT, began trading Tuesday with a 0.14% expense ratio, below the iShares Bitcoin Trust’s (IBIT) 0.25%. The difference is narrow but lands in a market where price is one of the few levers investors can pull.
Each spot bitcoin ETF holds bitcoin and tracks its price. That leaves cost, liquidity and access as the main points of difference. IBIT has led on scale and trading activity since launch, becoming the most liquid vehicle for both shares and options tied to bitcoin ETFs with roughly $55 billion in assets-under-management.
That liquidity gives IBIT an edge that may be hard to replicate.
“The launch will impact things but it will be interesting to see if it can actually siphon assets from other funds,” said James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “IBIT is the most liquid ETF for trading and in the options market and it’s unlikely MSBT will ever compete with that. At least not anytime remotely soon.”
