Morgan Stanley filed amended registration statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 18, 2026, proposing a spot Ethereum ETF and a spot Solana ETF that would each charge a 0.14% annual sponsor fee. If approved, that fee would be the lowest of any spot Ether or Solana product in the U.S. market. The bank also added a staking structure that routes 95% of staking rewards back into the funds, paying out only 5% to custodians and validator operators. The two products would trade on NYSE Arca under the tickers MSSE for Ethereum and MSOL for Solana.
Staking is the process of locking up cryptocurrency to help secure a proof-of-stake network like Ethereum or Solana, earning rewards in return. By keeping 95% of those rewards inside the trust, Morgan Stanley is offering investors yield on top of price exposure, a feature that has become the central battleground among crypto ETF issuers.
- Morgan Stanley’s proposed 0.14% fee on its Ethereum and Solana ETFs would undercut every named spot competitor, beating Grayscale’s 0.15% Ethereum Mini Trust and BlackRock’s 0.25% ETHA.
- The amended filings keep 95% of staking rewards inside the trusts; the sponsor takes no cut beyond the 0.14% fee.
- Ethereum filing data shows a 3.64 million ETH validator activation queue as of May 18, implying a roughly 63-day wait before newly staked ETH earns rewards.
- Named staking providers include Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Coinbase Canada, with NYSE Arca listings proposed under MSSE and MSOL.
Published: June 20, 2026, 14:00 UTC
Why a 0.14% fee resets the crypto ETF fee war
Morgan Stanley’s filing sets a new price floor that rivals will struggle to match without cutting into their own margins. Before this week, the cheapest spot Ether product was Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust at 0.15%. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) carries a 0.25% fee, Bitwise’s Ethereum ETF charges 0.20%, and Fidelity’s product has generally sat in the 0.20% to 0.30% range. Grayscale’s legacy ETHE still charges a 2.50% expense ratio.
The 0.14% unitary fee accrues daily on net asset value and is paid monthly in cash, with Morgan Stanley Investment Management absorbing most ordinary operating expenses out of that single charge. For a category where issuers have been competing on basis points since the first spot Bitcoin ETFs launched, undercutting the field by even one basis point matters for attracting institutional flows.
The staking yield play and its risks
The bigger differentiator is yield. Of all staking rewards the funds generate, 95% flows back into the trusts and lifts net asset value for shareholders, while 5% goes to staking service providers and custodians. Morgan Stanley stated in the amended Ethereum S-1 filing that the sponsor collects no additional staking income beyond the management fee, a structure that contrasts with rivals that have proposed retaining a share of staking yield.
That yield is not free of risk. The Ethereum filing discloses that staked Ether remains exposed to slashing, a penalty in which a validator that breaks protocol rules or fails network requirements loses part of its staked balance. The funds also face activation delays. According to the filing, roughly 3.64 million ETH were waiting in Ethereum’s validator activation queue as of May 18, 2026, and the network limits activations to about 57,600 ETH per day. Morgan Stanley estimated newly staked ETH could wait around 63 days before earning rewards.
Custody and validator operations would run through Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Coinbase Canada. For the Solana trust filing, the document describes a similar reward-sharing model but did not specify a daily cap on how much SOL could enter staking, and noted that custodians would not control the private keys tied to delegated SOL.
What happens next
The amended S-1 statements remain under SEC review, and neither filing includes a firm launch date. The move extends Morgan Stanley’s push into digital assets after the firm entered the spot Bitcoin ETF market earlier this year with its MSBT product. The bank’s wealth management arm also recently partnered with Galaxy Digital to let eligible high-net-worth clients convert Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana holdings into regulated investment products through a referral arrangement, a process the firms say can cut onboarding times by as much as 75%. (crypto.news)
The open question is whether a 0.14% fee paired with a 95% staking pass-through effectively ends the fee war before competitors can respond. Issuers that have built staking revenue into their economics now face a choice: match Morgan Stanley’s terms and surrender that income, or hold their fees and risk losing flows to a cheaper, higher-yielding product from one of Wall Street’s largest banks. (99Bitcoins)
Frequently asked questions
What are the tickers for Morgan Stanley’s Ethereum and Solana ETFs?
The proposed Ethereum ETF would trade as MSSE and the Solana ETF as MSOL, both on NYSE Arca. Both filings remain under SEC review and do not yet have a confirmed launch date.
How does the 0.14% fee compare to other crypto ETFs?
At 0.14%, it would be the lowest spot Ether or Solana fee in the U.S. market. Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust charges 0.15%, BlackRock’s ETHA charges 0.25%, and Bitwise’s product charges 0.20%.
Who keeps the staking rewards in these ETFs?
The funds retain 95% of staking rewards, which boosts net asset value for shareholders. The remaining 5% goes to custodians and staking service providers. Morgan Stanley takes no staking income beyond its 0.14% management fee.
