Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF Absorbs $194M With No Daily Outflows

Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) completed its first month on the market without recording a single day of net redemptions, a streak that no rival spot bitcoin fund matched over the same window, according to The Block. The ETF launched on April 8, 2026, with $30.6 million in net inflows and roughly $34 million in trading volume on day one, marking what Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset strategy Amy Oldenburg called the bank’s strongest-ever ETF debut. Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas placed the debut in the top 1% of all ETF launches.

First-Month Performance and Flow Profile

MSBT absorbed $194 million in net inflows across its first month, with daily inflows tapering from high-teens millions in the first two weeks to single-digit millions in later sessions, but never dipping below zero, according to SoSoValue data reviewed by The Block. On May 7, MSBT posted $5.7 million in inflows while BlackRock’s IBIT recorded −$27.2 million, Fidelity’s FBTC logged −$97.6 million, and ARKB posted −$26.6 million. MSBT was trading at a 0.24% premium to net asset value (NAV), higher than IBIT’s 0.18% and FBTC’s 0.13%, suggesting demand was outpacing creation unit supply.

Within six trading days of launch, MSBT had crossed $103 million in total net inflows, surpassing the $86 million all-time cumulative total of WisdomTree’s BTCW, a fund that has been trading since January 2024.

Fee Positioning and Competitive Advantage

MSBT’s 0.14% annual sponsor fee is the lowest among all U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, undercutting the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust at 0.15%, Bitwise’s BITB at 0.20%, ARKB at 0.21%, and both IBIT and FBTC at 0.25%. Grayscale’s original GBTC still charges 1.50%. The 11-basis-point gap between MSBT and IBIT amounts to $1.1 million annually per $1 billion invested at institutional scale.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, MSBT’s closest fee competitor at 0.15%, saw a choppier flow profile over the same window, recording at least one outflow day and generally smaller daily inflows despite holding $4.3 billion in net assets, per SoSoValue data. Whether the fee discount is driving MSBT’s stickiness is unclear.

Advisor Channel Expansion Opportunity

Nearly all of MSBT’s first-month inflows came from self-directed clients, according to Morgan Stanley. Amy Oldenburg stated at the Consensus conference in Miami: “Almost all of that first week or two of activity was self-directed, meaning it was not our advisors that were selling this.” Morgan Stanley operates roughly 16,000 financial advisors managing over $9.3 trillion in client assets, but the fund was not available on the bank’s advisory wealth management platform during its first weeks.

Once the advisor channel fully opens, MSBT would gain a proprietary distribution pipeline that no other bitcoin ETF issuer can match. Morgan Stanley is also piloting spot crypto trading on E*Trade with a 50-basis-point transaction fee, starting with bitcoin, ether, and solana.

Broader Spot Bitcoin ETF Market Context

MSBT’s first month coincided with a broader recovery in spot bitcoin ETF demand. The 13 U.S. spot bitcoin funds drew more than $3 billion in net inflows across six consecutive weeks through May 8, the longest weekly inflow streak since summer 2025, according to SoSoValue. Total net assets across the category stood at $106.6 billion, representing 6.67% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization, with cumulative net inflows of $59.3 billion since the category’s January 2024 launch.

Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas projected MSBT could hit $5 billion in assets under management within its first year. At its current run rate, that target would require the advisor channel to meaningfully accelerate inflows.

Bitcoin was trading at approximately $80,840 at the time of publication, according to The Block’s Bitcoin Price page.