Morgan Stanley Ether and Solana ETF fees set at 0.14%

Morgan Stanley set 0.14 per cent sponsor fees for planned spot Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) exchange-traded funds in amended US Securities and Exchange Commission filings dated June 18, undercutting the cheapest disclosed rival products as the bank pushes further into listed crypto funds.

The planned Morgan Stanley Solana Trust would charge the same 14-basis-point fee as the ether vehicle. Rival fees run as low as 0.15 per cent for ether funds and 0.19 per cent for solana funds, according to The Block’s reporting. The amended filings also add staking terms, giving the proposed products a yield component rather than leaving them as plain spot wrappers if regulators approve them.

That pricing borrows from the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), which launched earlier this year with the same 0.14 per cent fee. MSBT had drawn $300.7 million of cumulative net inflows as of June 18, according to The Block. For Morgan Stanley, the bitcoin fund gives a live test of low-price distribution in a market where wrappers can look interchangeable once custody, liquidity and tax treatment are stripped out.

“Particularly with Morgan Stanley’s MSBT (MSBT) coming in at 14 bps.”

Source: James Seyffart, Bloomberg Research analyst, via The Block

The Ether filing says the trust would normally stake 50 to 80 per cent of its ether holdings. The Solana filing allows staking of up to 100 per cent of the trust’s SOL. In both structures, 95 per cent of staking rewards would stay in the funds, with 5 per cent paid to service providers and custodians. The amended paperwork names Figment Inc., Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure LLC and Coinbase Canada, Inc. among the disclosed service providers.

How the structures differ

Ether is the more cautious product in the paperwork. Its amendment treats staking as a normal operating feature, but not as full deployment of the portfolio. Part of the trust’s ether would remain unstaked in ordinary conditions, leaving more room around liquidity and fund operations. The Solana trust is drafted for a more aggressive staking posture, making it the higher-yield product if the SEC allows the structure to launch as written.

The reward split matters because fee cuts are easy for rivals to copy. A fund that charges less and keeps most of the staking yield inside the trust is harder to dismiss for institutions comparing products that otherwise offer similar spot exposure. That is the commercial wager in the filings: low headline cost, plus most of the validator income retained for shareholders.

The latest amendments also point to an application process that has not stalled. Additional S-1 changes often reflect issuer-regulator dialogue and more detailed launch preparation, The Block reported. These documents add explicit disclosure on fees, staking providers and reward allocation, showing how Morgan Stanley plans to compete if the US altcoin ETF market broadens.

Morgan Stanley has already been building infrastructure around listed crypto products. Separate The Block reporting described the bank’s bitcoin trust as allowing clients to lend bitcoin and other assets for in-kind spot ETF conversions. The Ether and Solana amendments fit a wider distribution strategy more closely than a one-off test of altcoin exposure.

SEC approval is still the unresolved point. The documents do not set launch dates, and the regulator has not given final clearance to either trust. If the funds are cleared, Morgan Stanley would enter the US altcoin ETF race with two levers already written into the filings: the lowest disclosed fee in both categories and a staking structure that keeps most rewards inside the trusts. For institutional buyers, that pairing may carry more weight than another generic claim to ether or solana access.