Morgan Stanley files Staking ETH ETF in 3rd crypto offering
Morgan Stanley has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an ether exchange-traded fund (ETF), adding to the investment bank's massive list of crypto products.
US investment bank Morgan Stanley has filed an S-1 form to form the Ethereum Trust, which seeks to buy, hold and track the value of ETFs, in a filing with the SEC on Tuesday.
The filing says it doesn't want to “speculate” Ether to get additional returns, but plans to engage third-party stock service providers with an undisclosed amount of holdings for additional passive yields.
The filing is Morgan Stanley's third cryptocurrency ETF filing, after the bank made two similar filings on Tuesday, one for the Bitcoin (BTC) ETF and another for the Solana (SOL) ETF.
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Morgan Stanley Investment Management is listed as the ETF's sponsor, while CSC Delaware Trust Company is listed as the Delaware trustee. The fund's custodians and cash transfers have not yet been disclosed in an S-1 filing.
It also reflects deep crypto ambitions from Morgan Stanley, which has allowed financial advisors to recommend it to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)s clients since October 2024.
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Despite the $19 billion crypto market correction, spot ether ETFs are being established
Pending SEC approval, the new fund could add another meaningful source of demand for Ether, assuming that Ether ETFs are resilient despite the October market crash.
U.S. spot ether ETFs have sold just 18 percent of their flows from their $15 billion peak, despite ether's poor price performance since the $19 billion market crash, according to James Seifert, a crypto and ETF analyst at Bloomberg.
They have now seen nearly $2.8 billion in spending since the peak of $15 billion before the 10/10 liquidation,” he wrote in a Monday X post.
Whales, or large cryptocurrency investors, are increasing their exposure to Ether even as the industry's best traders return to being tracked by Nansen as “smart money” traders.
Wells bought $4.83 million worth of Ether tokens accumulated across 32 wallets last week, while smart money traders sold $8.9 million across 63 wallets in the same period, according to crypto intelligence platform Nansen.
Still, fresh cryptocurrency wallets created in the last 14 days added $2.34 billion worth of space ether tokens, more than triple the demand from new arrivals last week.
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