Morgan Stanley Unveils Cheapest ETH and SOL ETFs With Staking Rewards

Morgan Stanley has launched two new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track Ethereum and Solana, respectively. The Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (MSSE) and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (MSOL) began trading on NYSE Arca on July 28. These funds have been priced at a 0.14% expense ratio, which is significantly lower than any other ETH or SOL product in the US market.

This pricing makes MSSE and MSOL the cheapest ETH and SOL ETFs available to investors. According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the previous record holder for low price was Grayscale's Mini Ethereum Trust at 0.15%, while Franklin Templeton's SOEZ held the low mark for SOL funds at 0.19%. The Treasury and IRS have also published a safe harbor that allows exchange-traded products to stake assets and pass rewards to investors without separate tax charges, as long as certain conditions are met.

MSSE tracks the CoinDesk Ether Benchmark 4 PM NY Settlement Rate, while MSOL tracks the CoinDesk Solana Benchmark at the same cutoff. The launches follow Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin Fund, which was introduced earlier this year and has already attracted over $381 million in assets under management. Ally Wallace, Global Head of ETFs at MSIM, noted that since introducing their first ETFs in 2023, they have built a diversified suite of ETFs and ETPs that now exceed $14 billion in assets under management.