Bitcoin ETFs now hold about US$130 billion, roughly 7% of bitcoin’s total value.
Bitcoin’s next act is taking shape not on a crypto exchange, but inside one of Wall Street’s biggest banks.
Morgan Stanley has filed to launch spot bitcoin and solana exchange-traded funds, marking the first direct move by a major US bank into crypto ETFs and raising fresh questions about how far institutional adoption can go in a still-volatile market.
Reuters said Morgan Stanley submitted filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for products tied to the prices of bitcoin and solana, after already opening crypto access to all its clients and account types.
According to Bloomberg, the bank applied to set up a Bitcoin Trust and a Solana Trust, each holding the underlying cryptocurrencies.
The filings say Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. would sponsor both vehicles, and the Solana product would stake a portion of its holdings, using tokens to support the blockchain in exchange for rewards.
For wealth and investment professionals, the move sits at the intersection of client demand, fee pressure and risk management.
Since the SEC approved the first US-listed spot bitcoin ETF two years ago, a wide range of institutions – mainly asset managers – have launched similar funds, Reuters noted.
Forbes reported that spot bitcoin ETFs, led by BlackRock’s product, have grown to around US$130bn in total net assets, roughly 7 percent of bitcoin’s total value, turning crypto exposure into a mainstream portfolio building block rather than a fringe allocation.
Many investors now prefer to hold crypto through ETFs rather than directly on exchanges.
As per Reuters, ETFs can offer greater liquidity and security, and simpler regulatory compliance than managing wallets and keys.
US banks, which mostly acted as custodians in the past, are edging toward a more active advisory and product role in digital assets.
Reuters said Bank of America recently allowed its wealth advisers to recommend crypto allocations in client portfolios, without imposing an asset threshold.
Analysts see Morgan Stanley’s timing as strategic rather than symbolic.
Bryan Armour, ETF analyst at Morningstar, told Reuters, “It’s interesting to see Morgan Stanley move into a commoditized market, and I suspect that means they want to move clients that invest in bitcoin into their ETFs which could give them a fast start despite their late entrance.”
He added that a bank entering the crypto ETF market “adds legitimacy to it, and others could follow.”
Some market watchers called the move a surprise.
Forbes reported that Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas described the filing as a “shocker” on X and said, “They have like US$8tn in advisory assets and they already OK’d those advisors to allocate so might as well be in their own branded fund vs paying BlackRock or someone else.”
All this is unfolding against a backdrop of renewed, but fragile, bitcoin strength.
Forbes said bitcoin climbed almost 10 percent from its December lows in the first week of 2026, putting “US$2tn bitcoin back in play” after US President Donald Trump’s media company revealed a “bitcoin surprise.”
Yet the article also described the recovery as “fragile,” with flows into spot ETFs swinging sharply.
Citing SoSo Value data, Forbes reported that US spot bitcoin ETFs attracted US$1.155bn of inflows in the first two trading sessions of the year, followed by US$243m of outflows.
Samer Hasn, senior Market Analyst at XS.com, said this “stop start pattern suggests that part of the demand is driven by tactical trades and arbitrage rather than sustained allocation.”
He argued that until spot inflows become more consistent and are less offset by sharp outflows, bitcoin’s upside is likely to stay vulnerable to short-term reversals rather than forming a durable trend.
CNBC’s annual roundup of forecasts underscores how wide the uncertainty band remains.
The network reported that industry executives and investors see bitcoin trading anywhere between US$75,000 and US$225,000 in 2026, and warned of “huge volatility.”
CNBC noted that bitcoin hit a record high above US$126,000 last October before dropping to around US$80,000 later in the year, and now trades about 30 percent below that peak, based on CoinMetrics data.
According to CNBC, several analysts link the recent cycle to a more favourable US regulatory environment under US President Donald Trump, growing institutional interest and the rise of digital asset treasury companies that accumulated large bitcoin positions.
But they also point to stretched equity valuations, geopolitical uncertainty, questions about the durability of AI-driven spending and shifting monetary policy as reasons why the outlook for 2026 remains difficult to pin down.
