Immediately after Morgan Stanley announced it was rolling out E*Trade, charging a mere 50 basis points undercutting established rivals Coinbase, Robinhood and Schwab, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said “crypto exchanges should be scared.”

Others were less blunt, saying the Wall Street giant’s “isn’t entering crypto to complement Coinbase—it’s entering to replace it…”

The battle for cheap crypto trading resembles the trading fee race when spot ETFs launched in 2024, which saw providers begin high, offering 50 basis points before Morgan Stanley undercut them all with a 14 basis point offering.

In the long run, this means that trading crypto will be cheaper, where the clear winners will be retail traders, while crypto…