Morgan Stanley has filed a second amendment to its S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, advancing its plans to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. The fund will trade under the ticker MSBT on NYSE Arca, locking in a branding that signals Wall Street's deepening commitment to crypto.

Key Details From the Filing

The amended filing reveals the fund's operational structure. Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin Trust will require a 10,000-share creation unit to build the ETF and plans to seed the fund with $1 million at launch. The bank purchased two shares earlier this month purely for audit purposes.

BNY Mellon has been designated to handle the fund's cash and administrative functions, while Coinbase will serve as prime broker and custodian of its Bitcoin holdings — a notable vote of confidence in the crypto exchange's institutional custody business.

Wall Street's Crypto Push

If approved, MSBT would join eleven existing spot Bitcoin ETFs, including BlackRock's IBIT, which launched in January 2024. Those funds collectively pulled in over $56 billion in investor inflows, demonstrating sustained demand from institutions and retail investors alike.

Morgan Stanley originally filed its S-1 in January 2026, making it one of the last major U.S. investment banks to pursue a direct Bitcoin ETF. The bank also filed separately for a Solana ETF earlier this year, though no updated filings have appeared for that product.

What It Means

A Morgan Stanley-branded Bitcoin ETF would significantly expand the institutional wrapper options available to advisors and wealth management clients — Morgan Stanley manages roughly $5 trillion in client assets. Approval from the SEC would bring the total number of spot Bitcoin ETFs to twelve.

The MSBT filing adds to a growing queue of Wall Street filings that reflect the SEC's post-2024 openness to crypto investment products.