Morgan Stanley has filed amended S-1 forms with the SEC for spot exchange-traded funds on Ethereum and Solana, proposing the lowest management fees ever recorded—0.14% for each product. The move directly challenges current cost leaders and escalates the fee war in the crypto ETF market.
The proposed funds, to trade under the tickers MSSE (Ethereum) and MSOL (Solana), would undercut the Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (0.15%) and Franklin Templeton’s Solana ETF (0.19%). Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted on X that this fee tier would make them the cheapest crypto ETFs globally, a critical edge as late entrants like Morgan Stanley cannot rely solely on brand recognition to draw assets from giants like BlackRock and Fidelity.
The filings signal that SEC approval may be near, as a second amendment typically indicates final review. If greenlit, the Ethereum product would become the 11th spot Ether ETF in the U.S., and the Solana fund the 7th. Both will offer staking services via providers Figment, Galaxy Blockchain Infrastructure, and Coinbase Canada, with a 5% fee on staking rewards—a secondary revenue stream that helps offset the razor-thin management charge.
Morgan Stanley’s low-fee strategy has already proven effective: its Bitcoin ETF, launched in April 2026 with the same 0.14% fee, pulled in $30.6 million on day one and has since accumulated $331 million in total inflows, surpassing older funds from Invesco, Franklin Templeton, and CoinShares. The pattern reveals a playbook of aggressive pricing to generate early inflows, then retaining assets through the firm’s wealth management distribution network. Smaller issuers are unlikely to match 0.14% without risking losses, giving large banks a structural advantage in the ongoing fee war.
