Morgan Stanley’s 0.14% ETH And SOL ETF Fee Puts Rivals Under Pressure

Morgan Stanley has moved deeper into the crypto ETF race with proposed Ethereum and Solana products that would reportedly charge a 0.14% annual sponsor fee, putting immediate pressure on rival issuers already competing for institutional crypto flows.

The proposed Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust is expected to trade under the ticker MSSE, while the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust is expected to trade under MSOL. Both products are structured as exchange-traded trusts that would hold the underlying asset and reflect staking rewards where permitted.

A 0.14% fee would undercut Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust, which advertises a 0.15% management fee, and would also come in below Franklin Templeton’s Solana product, where SOEZ is already positioned as a low-cost regulated Solana vehicle. The gap is small in basis points, but it matters in ETF distribution, where advisors, model portfolios and institutional allocators often compare products by cost before liquidity develops.

Staking Adds A Second Competitive Layer

The filings make the products more than simple spot-price wrappers. The Ethereum trust is designed to track the CoinDesk Ether Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate while reflecting rewards from staking a portion of the trust’s ether. The Solana trust follows the same broad structure for SOL, with staking included if Morgan Stanley determines the activity does not create undue legal, regulatory or tax risk.

That puts the fee debate next to a staking-reward debate. If approved, the products would compete not only on expense ratios but also on how much staking income remains inside the trust, how validators are selected, how liquidity is managed during redemptions and how slashing risk is handled.

The Morgan Stanley filings name Coinbase Custody and BNY in custody and administration roles, with assets held through trust structures that are not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The products would still depend on SEC effectiveness and exchange approval before trading can begin.

Morgan Stanley Extends Its Crypto ETF Stack

The ETH and SOL amendments follow Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF push, where the bank used aggressive pricing to challenge existing issuers. Its planned expansion across Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana gives the firm a cleaner multi-asset crypto shelf for wealth-management clients already familiar with brokerage-based fund access.

The timing lands as ETF demand remains uneven. Bitcoin and Ether funds recently saw fresh redemptions as $249 million left spot products, while asset managers continue adding new structures, including Franklin Templeton’s Bitcoin DRIP ETFs that would direct stock dividends into Bitcoin exposure.

Morgan Stanley’s approach is more direct: low-fee single-asset crypto exposure, staking built into ETH and SOL products, and distribution through one of Wall Street’s strongest advisory networks.

Approval Still Controls The Timeline

The proposed ETH and SOL products remain under SEC review and cannot launch until the registration statements become effective. The latest filings define the trust structures, tickers, benchmarks, custody arrangements, staking mechanics and creation-redemption process, but approval is still the line between proposed pricing and live competition.