Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade to Launch Cryptocurrency Trading in 2026
Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade is set to initiate cryptocurrency trading in 2026, collaborating with Zerohash, a provider of digital asset infrastructure. This move underscores the growing interest in digital assets on Wall Street, especially with various supportive regulations emerging from the Trump administration.
E*Trade clients will be able to trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL) in the first half of 2026.
This development aligns with earlier reports from Bloomberg on May 1, which indicated that the company was planning to introduce crypto transactions the following year. Back then, Cointelegraph noted that E*Trade was in the early phases of forming partnerships with infrastructure providers.
E*Trade, acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020 for $13 billion, originally catered to over 5.2 million users. It focuses on a retail-centric platform for trading regulated financial securities, primarily targeting U.S. residents.
Zerohash might not be a widely recognized name in the crypto world, but it recently secured $104 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation, as reported by Fortune. This round was led by Interactive Brokers, and Morgan Stanley also participated. Zerohash offers crypto trading, tokenization, and stubcoin infrastructure tailored for financial institutions and blockchain adopters.
Interestingly, though E*Trade is entering this space, its notable competitor in the brokerage arena is Robinhood, which has swiftly expanded by offering crypto trading and recently acquiring the exchange Bitstamp for $200 million.
Wall Street’s Deepening Interest in Blockchain
E*Trade’s venture into cryptocurrency marks one of Morgan Stanley’s initial steps into retail digital assets, while banks overall are solidifying their roles in this sector.
Since August 2024, Morgan Stanley has permitted Wealth Advisors to actively present Bitcoin Exchange-traded funds to eligible clients. Earlier this year, CEO Ted Pick mentioned that the bank is also examining the trading aspect of cryptocurrencies.
It’s worth noting that Morgan Stanley wasn’t one of the Wall Street firms considering a joint stubcoin initiative back in May, with J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo exploring the concept instead.
Nonetheless, a paper by Andrew Peel, head of digital assets markets at Morgan Stanley, argued that stubcoins could enhance the global dominance of the U.S. dollar, a perspective that gained momentum following the enactment of the Genius Act signed by former President Trump.
The stablecoin market currently stands at an estimated value of around $300 billion.
