Morgan Stanley to Offer Crypto Trading on E*Trade Platform With 50 Basis Point Fee

Morgan Stanley is launching crypto trading on its E*Trade platform with a 50-basis-point fee, undercutting rivals including Coinbase, Robinhood and Schwab. The fee is lower than Schwab's 75 basis points for crypto trading. 6 million clients.

Jed Finn, Morgan Stanley’s head of wealth management, announced the rollout on May 11, 2026. "This is much bigger than trading crypto at a cheaper rate. In a way, the strategy is disintermediating the disintermediators," Finn said.

He added that "It’s going to be very competitive in the next couple of years" and the move aims to keep its clients within its banking system as crypto demand increases. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas called the development a "SHOTS FIRED" moment. " Balchunas noted that Schwab will likely respond and that by the time the dust settles it will be pretty dirt cheap to trade crypto everywhere.

CoinDesk reported that the announcement intensifies a price war in digital-asset trading. The battle for cheap crypto trading resembles the trading fee race when spot ETFs launched in 2024. Providers initially offered fees around 50 basis points before Morgan Stanley undercut them with a 14 basis point offering for those products.

Crypto exchanges face potential margin compression from the lower fees. Coinbase reduced its workforce by 14% after citing financial issues.

U.S. Crypto exchanges. Crypto-native executives pushed back against narratives of a TradFi takeover.

U.S. Gate ranks seventh on CoinGecko with a 24-hour volume of nearly $2 billion. Lee told CoinDesk that global platforms have moved on from fee-only models to diversified revenue streams including staking, structured products, institutional services, and ecosystem growth.

He explained that recent moves by Wall Street giants to cut spot trading fees reflect the ongoing reduction of commissions that is normal when competition intensifies.

"This mirrors long-established patterns in equities markets, where fierce competition naturally compresses fees," Lee said. " Georgii Verbitskii, founder of TYMIO, a non-custodial DeFi protocol, said Morgan Stanley bringing crypto trading to millions of brokerage users is positive for crypto adoption overall.

U.S. spot-trading and custody revenue and push exchanges further into derivatives, DeFi and global markets.

U.S. Exchanges and a positive step for mainstream crypto adoption. m. m.