Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust files amended S-1/A with SEC, includes staking provisions

Morgan Stanley Investment Management submitted an amended Form S-1/A to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20, 2026, advancing its bid to launch the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust. The filing updates an initial S-1 registration that was originally submitted on January 6, 2026, and provides substantially more detail about how the trust intends to operate.

What the filing actually says

The Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust is structured as a Delaware statutory trust, with Morgan Stanley Investment Management serving as the Delegated Sponsor. The trust was formally created on December 16, 2025.

Its stated investment objective is to track the CoinDesk Ether Benchmark 4PM NY Settlement Rate, plus any staking rewards it can generate.

The staking setup involves approved ether custodians who have agreements with third-party staking service providers. Rather than distributing staking rewards directly to shareholders, the trust plans to reflect those rewards in its net asset value. So investors would see their share price tick up slightly over time as staking income accumulates, rather than receiving discrete payouts.

On the structural side, the filing makes clear this is a passive vehicle. No leverage. No derivatives. No active trading. The trust simply holds ether, stakes some of it, and attempts to track the benchmark price. Shares are expected to list on NYSE Arca, though the filing did not disclose a fee structure or a specific launch timeline.

Morgan Stanley’s broader crypto ETP strategy

The Ethereum Trust does not exist in isolation. Morgan Stanley has also filed trusts for Bitcoin and Solana around the same period, building out a suite of regulated digital asset products that covers three of the largest crypto assets by market capitalization.

The timing is also worth noting. The original S-1 was filed in January 2026, just weeks after the trust entity itself was created in December 2025. The amended filing arriving roughly five months later suggests active engagement with the SEC review process.

For investors evaluating the product, the key unknowns remain the management fee, the proportion of ether that will be staked, and the specific custodians and staking providers involved. Those details will likely emerge in subsequent amendments or in the trust’s final prospectus.

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