Morgan Stanley Jumps Into Low-Fee Crypto Trading

Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade discount brokerage division is jumping into the digital asset arena with a pilot program allowing low-fee cryptocurrency trading. The Wall Street bank’s emphasis is on the “discount” part of discount brokerage, offering trades for just 50 basis points on the dollar, or 0.5%. The launch is Morgan Stanley’s attempt to gain a share of an asset class that was until recently untouchable by banks, according to Bloomberg. The firm is anticipating that decentralized finance, or DeFi, will merge with traditional finance, underpinning a strategy of creating crypto-related offerings on many of its business lines to attract customers. The plan is to roll crypto trading out to all…