Morgan Stanley shares surged to $192.76 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting a 14.13% upside from DBS Bank's raised price target. The stock traded 993,999 shares compared to its average volume of 6,941,204, with the company maintaining a market capitalization of $304.03 billion. DBS Bank increased their price target from $185.00 to $220.00, while other analysts including Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and BNP Paribas have also raised price objectives. The company reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.41, with revenue of $20.58 billion against expectations of $19.23 billion.
Morgan Stanley launched its ETrade crypto trading pilot on May 6, charging a flat 0.5% fee for Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana transactions. According to reports from Bloomberg, the service is available directly inside ETrade brokerage accounts via infrastructure partner Zerohash, which handles liquidity, custody, and settlement operations. The pilot covers 8.6 million E*Trade clients, with full access expected later in 2026. As reported by U.Today, this move is being called a 'shark move' that could start a commission war and pull a wave of retail capital into Bitcoin and Ethereum through familiar banking tools.
The 0.5% fee undercuts major competitors significantly. As reported by Bloomberg, Charles Schwab charges 75 basis points for spot Bitcoin and Ether trading, while Fidelity charges approximately 1% per trade. Robinhood offers commission-free trading but carries spreads of 35 to 95 basis points per transaction. ETF analyst Eric Balchunas told crypto.news that rivals "likely won't let this stand" and predicted fees across the industry will compress sharply, drawing parallels to the race to zero expense ratios among Bitcoin ETFs.
According to crypto.news, clients receive direct ownership of digital assets rather than fund exposure, eliminating third-party management fees but carrying greater price risk. The pilot currently does not support staking functionality. Zerohash manages all back-end operations, keeping private keys away from users. This service represents a broader digital asset push that includes Morgan Stanley's MSBT Bitcoin ETF, which launched April 8 at 0.14% expense ratio and reached $103 million in inflows within days, as reported by CoinDesk.
The crypto news cycle has not looked this bullish since October 2025, with Morgan Stanley's move signaling that traditional finance is building permanent access for millions of new buyers. As reported by U.Today, this represents a path designed for capital that wants regulated access to Bitcoin and Ethereum at market prices. The development comes as Bitcoin ETFs just pulled $2.7 billion in nine straight days of inflows, the longest streak of 2026, with Bitcoin trading above $80,200 for the first time since January. Morgan Stanley shares are trading at $192.76 with institutional investors owning 84.19% of the company's stock, while recent insider trading shows mixed sentiment with some executives selling shares worth millions.
