Why the TradFi takeover of crypto might not be the death blow analysts expect

Immediately after Morgan Stanley announced it was rolling out E*Trade, charging a mere 50 basis points undercutting established rivals Coinbase, Robinhood and Schwab, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said “crypto exchanges should be scared.”

Others were less blunt, saying the Wall Street giant’s “isn’t entering crypto to complement Coinbase—it’s entering to replace it…”

The battle for cheap crypto trading resembles the trading fee race when spot ETFs launched in 2024, which saw providers begin high, offering 50 basis points before Morgan Stanley undercut them all with a 14 basis point offering.

In the long run, this means that trading crypto will be cheaper, where the clear winners will be retail traders, while crypto exchanges see their margins significantly trimmed, potentially affecting the likes of Coinbase, who recently cited financial issues as a reason for to reduce its workforce by 14%.

When announcing E*Trade, Jed Finn, Morgan Stanley’s head of wealth management, suggested the move was more about dominance than control. “This is much bigger than trading crypto at a cheaper rate.

“In a way, the strategy is disintermediating the disintermediators.” He added: “It’s going to be very competitive in the next couple of years,” explaining the move is aimed at ensuring its 8.6 million clients remain within its banking system instead of resorting to other platforms as the demand for crypto increases.

In his X post last week, Balchunas echoed Finn’s sentiment, framing the Wall Street giant’s move as a “SHOTS FIRED” moment. “Morgan Stanley is rolling out crypto trading on its E*Trade platform for 50bps per trade, undercutting Schwab's 75bps (who undercut Coinbase).”

He said that based on his knowledge of how Schwab works, it will “likely won't let this stand. Others will probably undercut too.” He also said that “by the time the dust settles it'll be pretty dirt cheap to trade crypto everywhere.” Before concluding by saying “this is why (traditional financial) TradFi is no joke and crypto exchanges should be scared.”

However, crypto-native leaders rebuffed the “doom and gloom” narrative as U.S.-centric.

“While we respect Eric Balchunas's insights on TradFi's push into crypto, the perspective feels somewhat localized to the U.S. market and oversimplified for quick engagements on X,” said Kevin Lee, chief business officer at Gate, which with a 24 hour volume of nearly $2 billion.