Morgan Stanley launches low-fee Ethereum, Solana trusts

Morgan Stanley launched two staking-enabled trusts for Ethereum and Solana on July 28, listing the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (MSSE) and Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (MSOL) on NYSE Arca. The trusts recorded roughly $38 million in combined first-day trading.

MSSE traded 933,715 shares and reported $5.15 million of net inflows on its first day. MSOL traded 951,216 shares and generated about $19 million of turnover but showed no net creations. Data for the session show MSSE’s net inflows made up more than one-third of the roughly $14.5 million that entered U.S. Ethereum funds that day.

Each trust carries a 0.14% annual sponsor fee. Morgan Stanley will not take a direct share of staking rewards. Custodians and staking providers are expected to receive about 5% of gross staking rewards; the trusts retain the remainder before expenses and distributions. Rewards accrue in ETH or SOL and are then sold to fund cash payouts, which the trusts intend to make monthly when possible and at least quarterly.

The MSSE prospectus sets a normal staking range of 50% to 80% of Ethereum holdings, with an 80% target maximum adjustable for redemptions and liquidity. MSOL can stake up to 100% of its Solana holdings while keeping an unstaked portion as needed for liquidity and redemptions.

Morgan Stanley plans to use its distribution network to make the trusts available to brokerage and wealth clients. The firm reported $7.4 trillion in total client assets and more than 20 million client relationships at the end of 2025. Within wealth channels, nearly 16,000 financial advisers oversee about $2.6 trillion in client assets. E*TRADE enabled direct trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana earlier in the month, and Morgan Stanley operates a referral arrangement with a digital asset manager that allows eligible wealth clients to convert crypto exposure into shares of spot ETPs.

The new trusts follow Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust, launched in April, which had gathered more than $400 million in assets. Competing staking-enabled and spot products in the market include funds with larger existing asset bases: Bitwise’s Solana product group has attracted about $892 million of cumulative net inflows, and BlackRock’s original Ethereum product holds about $11.4 billion, with its staking-enabled Ethereum product at roughly $529 million.

Competitor fee and staking arrangements vary. Bitwise’s Solana offering charges a 0.20% management fee and passes 6% of staking rewards to service providers. Grayscale’s Solana trust carries a 0.19% fee and a 7% staking pass-through. On Ethereum products, Grayscale’s lower-cost option charges 0.15% and passes 6% of staking rewards. BlackRock’s staking-enabled Ethereum product has a stated 0.25% sponsor fee, with a temporary waiver that reduced the fee to 0.12% on the first $2.5 billion for a 12-month period.

The Morgan Stanley trusts provide a brokerage wrapper that allows retail investors to receive staking rewards without directly custodying tokens or interacting with validators.