Morgan Stanley Breaks the Mold—E*TRADE Now a Crypto Gateway for Retail Traders

Wall Street’s old guard finally caves—Morgan Stanley flips the switch on retail crypto trading via E*TRADE. No more private-client exclusivity; your aunt can now YOLO into Bitcoin alongside the suits.

Behind the scenes: A scramble to catch up with rivals as institutional demand plateaus. The move reeks of desperation—or genius—depending on who’s holding the bag.

Bonus jab: Another ’strategic pivot’ that just happens to align with the next bull run. How... convenient.

Morgan Stanley joins other investment giants in retail crypto

The feature would expand E*TRADE’s crypto offering, which is currently limited to crypto ETFs approved in the United States, as well as Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust and Bitcoin futures. The new feature would enable crypto spot trading, which means that clients would trade real crypto assets.

Morgan Stanley will partner with crypto-native firms, which would handle the crypto in the background. This involves custody, fiat-to-crypto onramps and offramps, and more. As the project is still in its early stages, there is little info on which assets would be available for trading.

Major financial institutions are slowly warming to crypto, driven both by regulatory shifts and user demand. Following Donald Trump’s inauguration, the U.S. regulatory environment has shifted decisively in crypto’s favor. For this reason, traditional financial institutions are much more willing to bet on the industry.

For instance, Fidelity offers Bitcoin trading and custody for its institutional clients, while also launching Fidelity Crypto for retail traders. Moreover, Charles Schwab offers spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, as well as other products with crypto exposure.

E*TRADE by Morgan Stanley is a brokerage and trading platform that appeals to retail users. It already offers investment options such as U.S. stocks, ETFs, options, and mutual funds. The platform’s goal is to make trading easier and more accessible.