E-Commerce, Morgan Stanley’s on-line brokerage division, is exploring plans to launch crypto buying and selling companies amid expectations of a extra favorable regulatory setting below the Trump administration, The Info reported Thursday, citing sources acquainted with the matter.
A longtime participant within the on-line brokerage business, E-Commerce doesn’t supply direct crypto buying and selling companies.
The agency at present provides oblique publicity to digital property via funding merchandise reminiscent of futures, ETFs, and shares associated to crypto property. These embody Grayscale Bitcoin Belief (GBTC) and ProShares Bitcoin Technique ETF (BITO), to call a number of.
Morgan Stanley acquired E-Commerce in late 2020 via an all-stock deal valued at $13 billion, aiming to strengthen its wealth administration enterprise. The addition of E-Commerce’s substantial consumer base and property below administration was supposed to boost Morgan Stanley’s current wealth administration operations.
If applied, the transfer would set up E-Commerce as one of many largest conventional monetary establishments to enter the digital asset buying and selling house, creating direct competitors with established crypto exchanges like Coinbase.
The transfer was unveiled amid the pattern of institutional adoption of crypto property. Morgan Stanley, in August 2024, introduced that choose shoppers with a internet price of a minimum of $1.5 million may entry spot Bitcoin ETFs via its monetary advisors.
Morgan Stanley has not formally confirmed the timeline for the potential crypto buying and selling rollout via its E-Commerce platform.
