Why Morgan Stanley Launched the Cheapest Bitcoin ETF on the Market

James Seyffart didn't expect Morgan Stanley to do this. Now he's watching to see if BlackRock blinks. Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges. Get started at http://nexo.com/unchained Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card! Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer. Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more. Citrea enables: cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform. ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity. Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network. Explore the Citrea Ecosystem. ======================================================== When Morgan Stanley launched MSBT this week, it didn't just become the first major US bank to issue its own spot Bitcoin ETF — it became the cheapest one on the market, undercutting BlackRock's iBIT by 11 basis points. For a firm not known for fee competition, that surprised even close ETF watchers. James Seyffart, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, has spent years tracking how wirehouses have slowly warmed to Bitcoin products. He joins Laura Shin to discuss what MSBT's launch says about where institutional crypto adoption is heading, whether Morgan Stanley's 16,000 advisors and $7 trillion in assets could meaningfully shift flows, and why Seyffart now sees inaction on crypto as the active choice, not the safe one, for portfolio managers. Plus: Strategy's $14.5 billion loss, Saylor keeps buying, and why MSTR’s S&P 500 question is now entirely a Bitcoin price story. Host: ⁠Laura Shin⁠, Host / Unchained Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠James Seyffart, Senior Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence Timestamps 🚀 0:00 Introduction 💰 2:12 How MSBT performed on day one, and what $34M in trading means 🏦 4:10 Who will buy MSBT: advisors, long-term holders, and why traders won't ⚡ 9:58 Why Seyffart tweeted "WOW" in all caps at the Morgan Stanley fee 🔄 12:22 Whether BlackRock will cut fees, and which ETFs might move first 🌐 16:18 Why Seyffart thinks Morgan Stanley is signaling a full crypto pivot ⚖️ 23:09 Why not owning Bitcoin is now the active choice, not the neutral one 📉 25:29 Why, with Strategy's $14.5B loss, Saylor keeps buying Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices