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MSBT saw a strong first day of trading on Wednesday, but the broader U.S. Bitcoin ETF sector was in the red yesterday.<\/p>\n
Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF, MSBT, kicked off trading as expected<\/a> on Wednesday, April 8, on NYSE Arca. The fund saw a relatively strong debut, with $30.6 million in net inflows yesterday, per Farside<\/a> data.<\/p>\n Morgan Stanley’s fund page<\/a> shows that the fund held 444.4 BTC valued at $31,654,653.90 as of April 8. Meanwhile, CoinDesk reported<\/a> the fund generated $34 million in day-one trading volume. <\/p>\n Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented<\/a> on the day-one performance midday on yesterday, when MSBT had already recorded $27 million in trading volume. Balchunas pushed his original $30 million day-one volume prediction to $50 million in the X post. For context, Balchunas reference two recent crypto ETF launches, for Solana and XRP funds, which both saw nearly $60 million traded on their first day. <\/p>\n The launch makes Morgan Stanley the first major U.S. commercial bank to issue its own spot Bitcoin ETF. A key competitive advantage, as The Defiant previously reported<\/a>, is that MSBT carries a 0.14% expense ratio \u2014 the lowest in the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market, undercutting BlackRock’s IBIT (0.25%), Fidelity’s FBTC (0.25%), and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust (0.15%).<\/p>\n The same day as MSBT’s positive debut, total U.S. spot BTC ETF products, excluding MSBT, saw $124.55M in net outflows, per SoSoValue<\/a> data. However ,BlackRock’s IBIT \u2014 by far the leading product in terms of cumulative net inflows \u2014\u00a0bucked the trend with $43.38 million in net inflows on the day Wednesday.<\/p>\n As of midday ET today, April 9, MSBT had seen 610,525 shares traded at a current price of $20.67, putting intraday volume at approximately $12.6 million, per Yahoo Finance<\/a> data.<\/p>\n Bitcoin was trading just below $72,000 at press time, per The Defiant\u2019s price tracker<\/a>. The prior day had seen a sharp ceasefire-driven short squeeze push crypto markets higher<\/a>.<\/p>\n MSBT’s launch is the latest milestone in a deepening institutional embrace of Bitcoin. The Defiant has tracked how advisor-driven capital has become the largest category of institutional Bitcoin ETF buyers<\/a>, surpassing hedge funds and brokerages \u2014 precisely the channel Morgan Stanley is now positioned to dominate. <\/p>\n