Morgan Stanley filed second-amended registration statements with the SEC for spot Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded funds, attaching a 0.14% sponsor fee to both. That price would be the lowest in either US market. The bank’s Ethereum fund is set to trade as MSSE and its Solana fund as MSOL, both targeting a listing on NYSE Arca. The filings, submitted Thursday, name Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Coinbase Canada as staking providers and return 95% of staking rewards to investors. Both funds remain under SEC review with no confirmed launch date.
A spot ETF is a fund that holds the underlying asset directly and trades on a stock exchange, letting investors gain price exposure through a brokerage account without holding the crypto themselves.
- Morgan Stanley set a 0.14% fee on its proposed spot Ethereum (MSSE) and Solana (MSOL) ETFs, undercutting Grayscale’s 0.15% ether fund and Franklin Templeton’s 0.19% Solana fund.
- The funds will stake a portion of holdings through Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Coinbase Canada, returning 95% of staking rewards to shareholders.
- The same 0.14% fee powered Morgan Stanley’s bitcoin fund MSBT, which has drawn roughly $300.7 million in net inflows since its April launch.
- Both filings are still under SEC review and cannot trade until the S-1s are declared effective and NYSE Arca clears the rule changes.
Published: June 21, 2026 09:30 UTC
What Morgan Stanley filed and why the price matters
Morgan Stanley submitted second-amended S-1 statements to the SEC for the two funds, which it first filed in January. The Ethereum filing and its Solana counterpart are public on the SEC’s EDGAR system. Repeated amendments usually signal active back-and-forth with regulators and movement toward a launch rather than a stalled application. The 0.14% sponsor fee disclosed in these versions is the headline.
That number undercuts the current cheapest products in each category. Grayscale’s Mini Ethereum Trust charges 0.15% for ether, and Franklin Templeton’s SOEZ charges 0.19% for Solana, according to SoSoValue data. A single basis point of separation sounds trivial, but for advisors allocating client money at scale, the lowest-cost fund in a category often wins default placement. Morgan Stanley appears to be betting that price, paired with its wealth-management network, channels client assets into its own products instead of rivals’.
The strategy is not new for the bank. Its spot bitcoin fund, MSBT, launched in April at the same 0.14% fee, undercutting established competitors including BlackRock’s IBIT, and has gathered roughly $300.7 million in cumulative net inflows as of June 18, according to Unchained. Applying identical pricing to ether and Solana would extend that playbook across the three largest crypto assets with US spot ETFs, deepening the kind of institutional adoption reshaping the market.
The staking angle traders should watch
Both funds plan to stake a portion of their holdings to generate extra yield, a feature that has become a competitive lever as issuers run out of room to cut fees. Staking is the process of locking up tokens to help secure a proof-of-stake blockchain in exchange for rewards paid in that same token.
The Ethereum and Solana filings name Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Coinbase Canada as staking service providers. Solana’s staking economics are also in flux as the network moves toward a new consensus design called Alpenglow. A 5% staking fee goes to those providers and custodians, while 95% of generated rewards flow back into each trust and lift net asset value for shareholders. Morgan Stanley collects no extra cut of staking income beyond its 0.14% management fee. For investors, that structure means the headline fee is not the whole return story: staking yield, net of the 5% service cost, accrues to the fund itself.
Regulatory status and what comes next
Neither fund can trade yet. Both the MSSE Ethereum ETF and the MSOL Solana ETF remain under SEC review, and the new amendments are a sign of regulatory engagement, not approval. Trading cannot begin until the S-1 statements are declared effective and NYSE Arca receives approval of the rule change for each product.
The filing sharpens an intensifying fee war across crypto ETFs. With Morgan Stanley resetting the floor at 0.14%, competitors carrying higher fees face pressure to match or justify the gap on distribution and brand. The next signals to watch are whether Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, or other issuers respond with their own amendments, and whether the SEC declares any of the pending Ethereum and Solana funds effective in the coming weeks.
Frequently asked questions
What are the tickers for Morgan Stanley’s Ethereum and Solana ETFs?
The proposed spot Ethereum fund is expected to trade under the ticker MSSE, and the spot Solana fund under MSOL. Both target a listing on NYSE Arca but remain under SEC review with no confirmed launch date.
How does the 0.14% fee compare to other crypto ETFs?
The 0.14% sponsor fee is the lowest in both markets. It undercuts Grayscale’s Mini Ethereum Trust at 0.15% for ether and Franklin Templeton’s SOEZ at 0.19% for Solana, according to SoSoValue data.
Will the ETFs share staking rewards with investors?
Yes. The funds plan to stake part of their holdings through Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Coinbase Canada. Of the staking rewards generated, 95% flows back into the trust, while 5% goes to providers and custodians.
