Morgan Stanley submitted a second amended S‑1 for a proposed spot Bitcoin ETF, moving closer to bringing the fund to market under the ticker MSBT. The updated filing details seed capital and market‑making arrangements: the trust plans to raise about $1 million by selling 50,000 initial seed shares to its delegated sponsor, then use those proceeds to purchase Bitcoin for the fund ahead of a planned NYSE Arca listing. Trading would only begin after required regulatory approvals are secured.
The filing lists Jane Street, Virtu Americas and Macquarie Capital as authorized participants. Those firms can create or redeem large blocks of shares and perform arbitrage between the ETF’s share price and Bitcoin’s market price, a mechanism that helps keep the ETF aligned with the underlying asset.
Morgan Stanley has already signaled a greater embrace of crypto for its clients: in October 2025 it recommended a 2%–4% crypto allocation for some investor portfolios and cleared its financial advisors to recommend crypto funds for IRAs and 401(k) accounts. Marcin Kazmierczak, co‑founder of RedStone, noted that by launching its own ETF Morgan Stanley is shifting from distributing BlackRock’s IBIT to issuing a product it will manage directly, capturing management fees instead of distribution commissions. He added that the firm’s roughly 15,000 financial advisors could provide significant distribution support for the ETF.
The filing comes amid a broader institutional move to expand retail access to crypto products. In early January 2026, Bank of America allowed wealth‑management advisers to recommend four Bitcoin ETFs more broadly, and Vanguard in January reversed its prior position to enable crypto ETF trading for clients. BlackRock had recommended up to a 2% Bitcoin allocation to clients in December 2024.
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