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.
