Arkham said it has identified the on-chain wallets tied to Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin ETF, giving users a way to follow Bitcoin inflows and outflows linked to the fund in near real time. The product, Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust under the ticker MSBT, launched on April 8 on NYSE Arca.
Arkham says its researchers verified the ETF-linked addresses
According to Arkham, the blockchain addresses were identified with the firm’s internal analytics tools, and its researchers verified the wallet attribution with a high degree of accuracy. The company described this as the first public identification of Morgan Stanley’s crypto holdings, which now lets users watch ETF-related Bitcoin transfers directly on-chain. Arkham also said its platform is currently the only place offering this level of tracking.
The visibility is not fully instant. Arkham said the system works on a T+1 basis, meaning on-chain transfers appear after official ETF flow announcements. Even with that delay, the firm said the data still reflects the underlying activity of the fund.
MSBT entered the market with lower fees and early asset growth
Morgan Stanley’s ETF recorded about $34 million in trading volume on its first day. After five trading days, net assets reached roughly $87 million. The fund charges a 0.14% fee, lower than some rival products. For comparison, BlackRock’s IBIT carries a 0.25% fee.
That places Morgan Stanley in a highly competitive segment already dominated by large asset managers. The source material says BlackRock currently leads the Bitcoin ETF market with about $57 billion in assets under management.
Traditional ETF plumbing is now more visible on the blockchain
Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust tracks the price of Bitcoin through direct asset backing. Each share represents exposure to underlying Bitcoin held by custodians. Product materials list Coinbase and BNY Mellon as custodians.
When investors buy shares, funds move through authorized participants before being converted into Bitcoin, and the assets are then held by custodians. Arkham’s wallet identification makes that process easier to observe from the outside. The settlement timeline still follows the conventions of traditional finance, but the movement of the ETF’s underlying Bitcoin can now be watched on-chain with much greater clarity.