The bear market has arrived, and cryptocurrency ETF issuers are also getting involved

Author: Chloe, ChainCatcher

On April 8, 2026, Morgan Stanley's spot Bitcoin ETF (ticker: MSBT) officially began trading on the NYSE Arca, becoming the first spot Bitcoin ETF issued directly by a major bank in the United States, with an annual fee rate of 0.14%, setting a new record for the lowest fee in the market.

This move is not just a simple product launch; it symbolizes that the liquidity in the crypto market is undergoing a restructuring. When giants like BlackRock and Fidelity join forces to carve up a hundred billion dollar ETF market, the power of Wall Street's channels and compliance endorsements fully intervene, the real survival pressure is not on Bitcoin holders, but on the native crypto exchanges that are losing liquidity pricing power.

What is the competitive logic behind these five giants? Is Morgan Stanley's low-price strategy enough to change the overall landscape? And how can perpetual contracts become the last moat for native crypto exchanges in this war of attrition?

A Hundred Billion Dollar Market: Cryptocurrency ETFs Are Developing Towards High Concentration

As of 2026, about 25 asset management companies in the United States are directly involved in cryptocurrency products (including ETFs, trusts, and funds), resulting in a very high market concentration. The total assets under management (AUM) of the five major crypto asset management giants have surpassed the hundred billion dollar mark, with the spot Bitcoin ETF alone exceeding 90 billion dollars. Compared to the starting phase of 56 billion dollars in 2024, this represents a growth of 1.6 times within two years.

In the competitive landscape, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) demonstrates absolute dominance, leading the pack with 54.9 billion dollars AUM, attracting a net inflow of 8.4 billion dollars in a single quarter, capturing 45% of the total market inflow; FBTC (Fidelity) ranks second with 12.3 billion dollars, and GBTC (Grayscale) comes in third with 10.6 billion dollars.

From the data above, it is clear that when institutional capital decides to allocate Bitcoin exposure, BlackRock is almost the only first choice