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BREAKING: Morgan Stanley Prepares Bitcoin ETF for NYSE Arca Launch, Picking MSBT Ticker

The short term is messy.

But thats not stopping the long-term buildout from the institutions…

Morgan Stanley just updated its Bitcoin ETF filing, revealing the fund will trade on NYSE Arca under the ticker MSBT.

The bank also added Fidelity as a third custodian alongside Coinbase and BNY Mellon - and announced a fee waiver on the first $5 billion invested for six months.

That's a $9 trillion asset manager preparing to launch a Bitcoin ETF with three institutional-grade custodians and an aggressive fee structure to attract early capital.

The bank's Solana and Ethereum ETF filings haven't been updated since January, suggesting the Bitcoin fund is first in line.

Meanwhile, BlackRock's staked Ethereum fund ETHB hit $254 million in assets under management in its first week - $146 million in new inflows on top of a $100 million seed.

However…

Wednesday's Fed decision - which we covered yesterday - spooked the markets.

Powell flagged oil-driven inflation and raised the 2026 forecast to 2.7%.

Bitcoin dropped from $76K to below $71K. And the ETF inflow streak that had been building for over a week snapped hard.

Over the past two days, spot Bitcoin ETFs have shed a combined $253 million.

Wednesday saw $163.5 million in outflows led by Fidelity at $104 million.

Thursday added another $89.65 million, with BlackRock's IBIT posting its second straight day of redemptions at $37.71 million.

The seven-day inflow streak had nearly pushed year-to-date flows into positive territory.

As one analyst put it: "The price action screams of a market that's run out of puff."

But Morgan Stanley isn't filing S-1 amendments because it thinks crypto is done. BlackRock isn't seeding staking ETFs for fun.

The institutions are still building. The market just needs time to catch up. 🚀

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Matt Hougan just published the most important investor memo he's written all year.

And it starts with a mistake almost everyone is making.

Hougan is the Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, managing over $10+ billion in crypto assets.

He's been in crypto full-time since 2018. And he admits that when he first heard people talking about $1 million Bitcoin, he laughed too.

He doesn't laugh anymore.

Here's the mistake. When most people hear "$1 million per Bitcoin" they do the math against today's store-of-value market. Gold is worth about $36 trillion. Bitcoin is worth about $1.4 trillion.

Together, that's roughly $38 trillion. For Bitcoin to hit $1 million, it would need to capture over 50% of that market.

That sounds impossible. And if the market stays the same size, it probably is.

But here's what everyone forgets: the store-of-value market is not static.

Hougan pointed out that when the first gold ETF launched in 2004, the entire gold market was worth about $2.5 trillion.

Today it's nearly $40 trillion. That's a 13% compound annual growth rate over 20 years, driven by government debt, geopolitical uncertainty, and easy monetary policy.

And those forces aren't slowing down. They're accelerating.

If the store-of-value market continues growing at the same rate, it'll be roughly $121 trillion in 10 years.

At that size, Bitcoin only needs to capture 17% of the market to be worth $1 million per coin.

Not 50%. Just 17%.

That's the number that changes the entire conversation.

And as Hougan laid out, the trajectory is already pointing there.

A few years ago there were:

Now Bitcoin ETFs are the fastest-growing in history, sovereign wealth funds are buying, and professional investors are modelling 5% allocations.

Hougan acknowledged the risks.

But he also made clear he thinks there's equal risk these projections are too conservative.

The base case, in his words: the store-of-value market keeps growing as it has, and Bitcoin keeps gaining share as it has.

And that base case leads to a number with a lot of zeros behind it. 💎

Today we’ll be taking a look at the amount of wallets that hold at least some Bitcoin. (anything greater than 0)

This metric offers a bird’s-eye view of user activity and adoption across the Bitcoin network.

But there’s a slight catch…

One wallet does not equal one user. A user can have many wallets.

What matters here is the trend of the chart.

Here's a number the market keeps ignoring…

58,477,277 wallets now hold at least some Bitcoin. That's 163,545 new holders in just two weeks.

Read that again. Over 11,000 new wallets per day - during one of the most brutal sentiment stretches of the cycle.

Nobody is being lured in by green candles and euphoria right now. These are people choosing to buy Bitcoin while the mood is at its worst.

That's a different kind of buyer.

The network doesn't shrink during drawdowns anymore. It grows. Every shakeout clears out the leveraged tourists and replaces them with holders who entered with eyes wide open.

The base keeps getting wider anyway. 💪

Crypto Clarity Act inches toward Senate hearing as lawmakers weigh legislative trades. The White House may be reviewing fresh legislative text, and lawmakers are reportedly weighing offers to banks of other, unrelated provisions for their support.

'Extreme Fear' Hits Crypto Markets After Bitcoin Gives Up $75K Spike. Crypto market sentiment is fading as Bitcoin dipped below $69,000. But predictors on Myriad don't expect a return to all-time low fears.

SEC Interpretation on Crypto Laws ‘a Beginning, Not an End,‘ Says Atkins. Paul Atkins spoke at the Practising Law Institute on Thursday to clarify how the SEC would approach crypto regulation and enforcement amid pending market structure legislation.

JPMorgan notes Hyperliquid gaining traction as traders seek 24/7 oil trading. Traction in such decentralized exchanges is likely to grow over time and extend beyond commodities to other assets, JPMorgan said.

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Trivia Answer: Hot wallets are connected to the internet while cold wallets are stored offline 🥳

Hot wallets (like MetaMask or exchange wallets) offer convenience for frequent trading but are more vulnerable to hacks. Cold wallets (like Ledger or Trezor devices) keep private keys completely offline, making them far more secure for long-term storage. Most security best practice recommends keeping the majority of holdings in cold storage.

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