MutualFundWire.com: Who Will Power a Wirehouse Sibling's 1st Crypto ETPs?
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Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Who Will Power a Wirehouse Sibling's 1st Crypto ETPs?


At a wirehouse's 4,900-employee, $1.8-trillion-AUM asset management sibling, the team is officially building its first two digital-asset-tracking exchange-traded products.

Benjamin Cordt "Ben" Huneke
 Morgan Stanley
Head of Investment Management
Yesterday (January 6), Scott Steel and Jim Kirchner, managing directors at Morgan Stanley Investment Management [profile], filed to launch the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust. New York City-based MSIM will sponsor both planned ETPs.

The two filings leave many questions about unaswered about the planned ETPs. No unitary sponsor fees (aka expense ratios) are listed, nor does the MSIM team reveal ticker symbols for the funds.

Most of the planned ETP's provider positions are still TBA, too. The filings do not reveal the ETPs':
  • administrator;
  • benchmark provider;
  • cash custodian;
  • digital assets custodians (bitcoin for one, SOL for the other);
  • independent accounting firm;
  • marketing agent;
  • primary listing exchange; and
  • transfer agent.

    • Morgan Stanley's Solana and Bitcoin products will both be ETPs, under the '33 Act (not ETFs under the '40 Act). CSC Delaware Trust Company will serve as a trustee (though another trustee is unnamed), and Dechert LLP will serve as counsel.

    MSIM's dual cryptocurrency ETP move comes about two years after the first bitcoin ETPs debuted. Other spot crypto ETPs for other digital assets have followed.


    Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=71925

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