MSBT saw a strong first day of trading on Wednesday, but the broader U.S. Bitcoin ETF sector was in the red yesterday.
Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF, MSBT, kicked off trading as expected on Wednesday, April 8, on NYSE Arca. The fund saw a relatively strong debut, with $30.6 million in net inflows yesterday, per Farside data.
Morgan Stanley’s fund page shows that the fund held 444.4 BTC valued at $31,654,653.90 as of April 8. Meanwhile, CoinDesk reported the fund generated $34 million in day-one trading volume.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented on the day-one performance midday on yesterday, when MSBT had already recorded $27 million in trading volume. Balchunas pushed his original $30 million day-one volume prediction to $50 million in the X post. For context, Balchunas reference two recent crypto ETF launches, for Solana and XRP funds, which both saw nearly $60 million traded on their first day.
The launch makes Morgan Stanley the first major U.S. commercial bank to issue its own spot Bitcoin ETF. A key competitive advantage, as The Defiant previously reported, is that MSBT carries a 0.14% expense ratio — the lowest in the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market, undercutting BlackRock’s IBIT (0.25%), Fidelity’s FBTC (0.25%), and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust (0.15%).
The same day as MSBT’s positive debut, total U.S. spot BTC ETF products, excluding MSBT, saw $124.55M in net outflows, per SoSoValue data. However ,BlackRock’s IBIT — by far the leading product in terms of cumulative net inflows — bucked the trend with $43.38 million in net inflows on the day Wednesday.
As of midday ET today, April 9, MSBT had seen 610,525 shares traded at a current price of $20.67, putting intraday volume at approximately $12.6 million, per Yahoo Finance data.
Bitcoin was trading just below $72,000 at press time, per The Defiant’s price tracker. The prior day had seen a sharp ceasefire-driven short squeeze push crypto markets higher.
MSBT’s launch is the latest milestone in a deepening institutional embrace of Bitcoin. The Defiant has tracked how advisor-driven capital has become the largest category of institutional Bitcoin ETF buyers, surpassing hedge funds and brokerages — precisely the channel Morgan Stanley is now positioned to dominate.
When the bank first filed for MSBT in January, Balchunas called it a “shocker” and noted the firm’s existing advisor approvals for crypto allocations made issuing their own branded fund a natural next step.
The question now is whether day-one momentum translates into sustained flows, and whether other banks follow Morgan Stanley through the door it has opened.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
