Morgan Stanley’s Long-Awaited Bitcoin Spot ETF Has Launched: Bloomberg Analysts Are Surprised

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas stated that Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin ETF, MSBT, showed a strong performance on its first day of trading.

Balchunas noted that by the halfway point of the trading day, the ETF had reached a volume of $27 million and would easily surpass his own $30 million estimate by the end of the day. According to the analyst, MSBT’s daily trading volume could close at around $50 million; this would represent a performance that could place the product in the top 1% of ETF launches.

Balchunas cited Defiance Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BSOL), VanEck $XRP Strategy ETF (XRPC), and Tema Digital Asset Mining ETF (DRAM) as examples of ETFs that have had strong starts of similar scale in the past year. It was noted that these ETFs also reached trading volumes of around $60 million in their initial days.

On the other hand, expectations regarding the ETF’s settlement period and options market also came to the fore. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart stated that spot Bitcoin ETFs generally use a T+0 (same-day) settlement system. However, he pointed out that there may be certain operational nuances in some products, particularly with iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

Regarding the options market, Seyffart stated that it is difficult to make a clear prediction about when options will open for new ETFs. However, the analyst emphasized that in the current situation, option volume is largely concentrated on IBIT, with this ETF alone accounting for approximately 97% of the total option volume, and that this situation is unlikely to change in the short term.

*This is not investment advice.