Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS) has literally chosen the best day of the year to launch its new spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF).
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In afternoon trading on April 8, BTC is up 5% and trading near $72,000, its highest level in several weeks. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are surging as a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran takes hold. Investors are flooding back into crypto after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. and Israel had reached a two-week moratorium on fighting with Iran.
Digital assets such as Bitcoin are also soaring as crude oil prices crash, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, the U.S. standard, down 15% and trading at $95 per barrel. The surge in crypto prices and broader market recovery are great news for Morgan Stanley and its spot Bitcoin ETF called, “the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust ETP.”
Morgan Stanley’s Crypto Bet
The new Bitcoin Trust from Morgan Stanley trades under the ticker symbol “MSBT” and is the first new entrant in the U.S. market for spot Bitcoin ETFs in about two years. Morgan Stanley’s new crypto fund joins a crowded field of about a dozen other BTC ETFs.
Morgan Stanley is looking to attract investors by offering extremely low fees to start. The MSBT fund has an expense ratio of 14 basis points, which is much cheaper than BlackRock’s (BLK) market leading iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF ($IBIT ), which has an expense ratio of 25 basis points. The other spot Bitcoin ETFs have expense ratios between 15 and 30 basis points.
BTC’s Three-Month Performance
The chart below shows that Bitcoin has struggled in recent months and declined 24% in the last 12 weeks as the selloff in cryptocurrencies that began in October 2025 continues.
