Morgan Stanley Launches America’s Cheapest ETH and SOL ETFs With Staking Rewards

The investment banking giant has begun trading for the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (MSSE) and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (MSOL) on NYSE Arca on July 28.

Both funds are priced at a 0.14% expense ratio, which undercuts every rival $ETH and $SOL product on the US market, as CryptoPotato covered the amended filings that locked in the 14 basis point figure earlier this month.

Notably, Grayscale’s Mini Ethereum Trust held the previous low mark among $ETH funds at 0.15%. Franklin Templeton’s SOEZ was the cheapest $SOL fund at 0.19%. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said at the time that the pricing made the two funds “the cheapest in the U.S. and world.”

Cheapest $ETH and $SOL ETFs, But With Tax Cover

Both trusts stake a share of their holdings and hand the rewards back to shareholders.

“MSIM will not retain any portion of the rewards earned by either ETP for itself,” the firm said in its announcement. The registration docs put the staking targets at 50% to 80% of $ETH holdings and up to 100% of $SOL, run through Figment, Galaxy and Coinbase Canada, with provider service fees capped at 5%.

The Treasury and the IRS published the Revenue Procedure 2025-31 in November, a safe harbor that lets an exchange-traded product stake a single proof-of-stake asset and pass rewards to investors without a separate tax charge.

The conditions include a third-party custodian holding private keys, an independent staking provider, and SEC approval of the disclosures.

MSSE tracks the CoinDesk Ether Benchmark 4 PM NY Settlement Rate. MSOL tracks the CoinDesk Solana Benchmark at the same cutoff. MSIM acts as delegated sponsor for both, with Foreside Fund Services as marketing agent.

Building on the Bitcoin Fund

The launches follow the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), the first crypto ETP from a US bank-affiliated asset manager, which opened earlier this year with $34 million in first-day volume.

MSBT held more than $381 million in assets under management through July 16 and carries the same 0.14% fee.

“Since introducing our first ETFs in 2023, we’ve built a diversified suite of ETFs and ETPs that now exceed $14 billion in assets under management,” said Ally Wallace, Global Head of ETFs at MSIM. The suite runs to 22 products, three of them digital asset ETPs.