Morgan Stanley bitcoin ETF draws $194 million in first month

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Morgan Stanley bitcoin ETF debut

Highlights

MSBT attracts $194 million in net inflows in its first month, with no single day of net redemptions, outperforming all rival U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs.
MSBT's 0.14% annual sponsor fee is the lowest among U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, offering a cost advantage over IBIT and FBTC at 0.25%.
MSBT trades at a 0.24% premium to net asset value, higher than IBIT's 0.18% and FBTC's 0.13%, signaling sustained demand versus creation unit supply.

Launch momentum and fund economics

The Block, citing SoSoValue data, reports that the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, or MSBT, completes its first month in the market without a single day of net redemptions, a result no rival U.S. spot bitcoin fund matches over the same period.

MSBT launches on April 8 with $30.6 million in net inflows and about $34 million in trading volume on its first day. Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas ranks that debut in the top 1% of all ETF launches, even as the broader spot bitcoin ETF market records $94 million in net outflows on the same day.

Daily inflows are easing from the high teens of millions in the first two weeks to single-digit millions in later sessions, but they remain above zero throughout the period. On May 7, MSBT records $5.7 million in inflows while BlackRock's IBIT posts negative $27.2 million, Fidelity's FBTC logs negative $97.6 million and ARKB shows negative $26.6 million, according to SoSoValue.

MSBT is trading at a 0.24% premium to net asset value, above IBIT's 0.18% and FBTC's 0.13%, indicating demand is running ahead of creation unit supply. Within six trading days of launch, the fund surpasses $103 million in total net inflows, overtaking the $86 million cumulative total of WisdomTree's BTCW since its January 2024 debut.

The fund's 0.14% annual sponsor fee is the lowest among U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, slightly below the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust at 0.15%. The pricing gap versus larger rivals such as IBIT and FBTC at 0.25% is small for retail investors, but at institutional scale it amounts to $1.1 million a year for every $1 billion invested.

In our earlier article on Strategy (MSTR), we examined how the company’s massive Q1 2026 net loss—driven largely by unrealized markdowns on its Bitcoin holdings—pushed management to consider selling part of its BTC reserves to meet preferred-share obligations. We also noted that, despite strong near-term technical momentum, the stock was likely to trade range-bound as investors weighed liquidity planning and the evolving approach to Bitcoin exposure.

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