Morgan Stanley announces entry into the cryptocurrency market, plans to launch digital asset trading services in 2026
Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley announced that it will launch cryptocurrency trading services through its E-Trade platform in the first half of 2026, initially supporting mainstream assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
This service will be realized in partnership with American digital asset infrastructure company Zerohash, marking the formal entry of large financial institutions on Wall Street into the cryptocurrency trading field.
This decision stems from intense competitive pressure in the industry. Currently, Robinhood offers multi-currency trading services, and Charles Schwab has entered the market through cryptocurrency ETFs.
At the same time, in the face of a digital asset market totaling $3.98 trillion (with Bitcoin accounting for $2.25 trillion and Ethereum for $503.9 billion), traditional financial institutions are accelerating their layout, which has become an inevitable trend.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley's partner Zerohash recently completed a $104 million Series D funding round, and its valuation has entered the unicorn ranks, led by Interactive Brokers, with other investors including Interactive Brokers, Morgan Stanley, and SoFi.
At the same time, Citigroup is planning stablecoin custody services, and Bank of America is secretly developing its own stablecoin, even Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, who has traditionally been critical of BTC, is beginning to pay attention to the stablecoin field.
In terms of market performance, Bitcoin fell back to around $112,000 after breaking through $124,000, and currently maintains a daily range oscillating between $110,000 and $115,000. Mainstream altcoins generally followed the decline, indicating that the overall market is in a correction phase.
In summary, industry analysts point out that the friendly regulatory environment created by the Trump administration has become a key catalyst for traditional financial institutions' entry into the cryptocurrency market.
At the same time, as Wall Street giants like Morgan Stanley sequentially lay out their strategies, the institutionalization process of the market will enter an accelerated stage.
Although short-term price fluctuations are still influenced by policy expectations and market sentiment, the deep integration of traditional finance and the cryptocurrency ecosystem is irreversible, which will bring a more stable funding base and a more mature market structure to the industry.
