Morgan Stanley’s E*Commerce will launch cryptocurrency buying and selling in 2026 by a partnership with digital asset infrastructure supplier Zerohash — underscoring Wall Avenue’s deepening push into digital property amid a wave of supportive laws from the Trump administration.
E*Commerce purchasers will be capable to purchase Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) within the first half of 2026, a Morgan Stanley spokesperson advised Reuters.
The announcement confirms a Might 1 Bloomberg report that the brokerage deliberate so as to add crypto buying and selling subsequent 12 months. On the time, Cointelegraph reported that the initiative was nonetheless in early phases as E*Commerce sought partnerships with infrastructure suppliers.
E*Commerce was acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020 for $13 billion. On the time of the deal, the low cost brokerage had greater than 5.2 million customers and supplied a retail-focused platform for buying and selling regulated monetary securities, targeted primarily on US residents.
Zerohash is just not a family title in crypto, however Fortune reported Tuesday that it raised $104 million at a $1 billion valuation in a spherical led by Interactive Brokers. The corporate offers crypto buying and selling, tokenization and stablecoin infrastructure for monetary establishments and different blockchain adopters. Morgan Stanley additionally participated within the funding spherical.
As Bloomberg famous, Zerohash will construct a full pockets resolution for E*Commerce purchasers.
Maybe E*Commerce’s largest rival within the low cost brokerage crypto house is Robinhood, which has quickly expanded its footprint by providing crypto buying and selling and, extra not too long ago, buying change Bitstamp in a $200 million deal.
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Wall Avenue broadens blockchain push
Whereas E*Commerce’s crypto rollout represents certainly one of Morgan Stanley’s first direct retail forays into digital property, the financial institution has already been deepening its presence within the house.
Since August 2024, Morgan Stanley has allowed its wealth advisers to actively pitch spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds to eligible purchasers. Earlier this 12 months on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, CEO Ted Decide mentioned the financial institution can be exploring the transactional facet of crypto.
Apparently, Morgan Stanley was not among the many Wall Avenue firms reported in Might as weighing a joint stablecoin initiative. In line with The Wall Avenue Journal, JPMorgan, Financial institution of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo had been exploring the concept.
Nonetheless, a 2024 paper by Andrew Peel, Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset markets, argued that stablecoins might reinforce the US greenback’s international dominance — a view that aligns with latest regulatory efforts to determine clear stablecoin laws.
That perspective gained traction with the passage of the GENIUS Act, signed into regulation by US President Donald Trump, which established a complete framework for stablecoin issuers.
Associated: Crypto execs middle stage as Trump indicators stablecoin invoice into regulation
