Morgan Stanley Takes on Crypto Trading

Morgan Stanley has started selling Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana on its ETrade platform. The fee is 50 basis points per trade, which is lower than the 60–95 basis point spreads charged by other brokers. This move lets the bank offer crypto to its 8. 6 million customers without needing a separate exchange. The service uses Zerohash’s technology, which Morgan Stanley signed last September. By cutting fees, the bank hopes to attract traders who usually go to Coinbase or Robinhood. A Bloomberg analyst said that if the price keeps falling, crypto brokers will have to lower costs until trading is very cheap. Morgan Stanley’s head of wealth said the goal is “to remove intermediaries that normally sit between traders and the market. ” Grant Cardone, a real‑estate investor, told a conference that he now owns about $200 million in Bitcoin. He mixes crypto with rental properties inside one company, using the rent to buy more Bitcoin over time. Cardone argues that this hybrid model protects against falling Bitcoin prices because the property can stay even if crypto crashes. He plans to grow this to 10, 000 BTC and eventually launch a public company in 2026. The White House is pushing for the Clarity Act to be signed by July 4, aiming to give clear rules for crypto.The bill would pass the Senate this month and be voted on in the House before Independence Day. Some lawmakers still want stricter rules, but the administration says it will apply fairly to all offices. SpaceX’s new data center in Memphis is now powering Claude, a large language model from Anthropic. The partnership gives the AI company access to over 300 MW of power and more than 220, 000 GPUs. This deal was announced after Elon Musk testified in a lawsuit against OpenAI and met with Anthropic staff. The goal is to expand AI computing in space using SpaceX’s launch infrastructure. Crypto markets are mixed: Bitcoin dropped 2 % to about $81, 000. Some altcoins like VVV and TON are up more than 10 %. Oil fell by 1 %, while gold rose slightly. The CME Group will offer crypto futures and options around the clock starting May 29, making 24‑hour trading possible for the first time. A new report suggests that quantum computers could threaten crypto security as early as 2030. The US is seeing more tokenized assets: $8 B in tokenized Treasury bonds on Ethereum and growing ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Some new projects are raising money, such as OpenTrade and Hyperliquid, aiming to bring stablecoins into mainstream finance.