Morgan Stanley's (MS +0.26%) E*Trade is one of the top online brokerages in the U.S., but it doesn't provide any cryptocurrency trading tools. For now, E*Trade customers who want to invest in cryptocurrencies can only buy their associated exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
However, E*Trade recently announced it would finally enter the crypto market through a new partnership with Zerohash, an infrastructure provider for digital assets, in the first half of 2026. Once that new feature launches, E*Trade's customers will be able to directly buy and sell three types of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC 1.79%), Ethereum (ETH 2.44%), and Solana (SOL 2.47%). Let's see why the brokerage is targeting this trio of coins -- and if its investors should accumulate them.
Image source: Getty Images.
The differences between Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana
Bitcoin, the world's most valuable cryptocurrency, has a market cap of about $2.3 trillion. It's mined with the energy-intensive proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism, in which its miners receive rewards for solving complex cryptographic puzzles with their computing systems.
Bitcoin has a maximum supply of 21 million coins, and 19.9 million of those have already been mined. The final bitcoins are expected to be mined in 2140. Every four years, a scheduled halving cuts its mining rewards in half to throttle the rate at which new Bitcoin is produced. That scarcity makes it comparable to digital gold, but Bitcoin's blockchain doesn't support the development of other applications or tokens.
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
Ether, the world's second most valuable cryptocurrency with a market cap of about $500 billion, is the native coin of the Ethereum blockchain. Ether was once mined with a PoW mechanism like Bitcoin, but it transitioned to the more energy-efficient proof of stake (PoS) mechanism in 2022.
After that transition, Ether could no longer be mined. Instead, it could be staked -- or locked up on the blockchain for interest-like rewards. As a PoS blockchain, Ethereum also gained support for smart contracts, which are used to create decentralized apps (dApps), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other tokenized assets.
Ether has a circulating supply of 120.7 million coins, and the supply can either increase or shrink based on its network activity. Some coins are burned (removed from circulation) with every transaction as a "gas (user) fee, so its supply decreases as more people use its network. But when fewer people use its network, its supply increases faster than its burn rate. Therefore, Ether is often valued by the growth of its developer ecosystem instead of the scarcity of its tokens.
CRYPTO: ETH
Key Data Points
Solana, with a market cap of $108 billion, is the second-largest PoS crypto after Ethereum. Like Ethereum, Solana was built with decentralized app developers in mind. But by integrating its own proof of history (PoH) mechanism (which timestamps transactions before they're validated) into its Layer 1 PoS blockchain, Solana can achieve much higher speeds than Ethereum's Layer 1 blockchain. Solana has a real-world max speed of 2,000-3,000 transactions per second (TPS), compared to Ethereum's maximum speed of 18 TPS.
But unlike Ether, Solana is a crypto with a steadily growing supply. There are currently 610.7 million Solana coins in circulation, and it's reducing its annual supply growth rate (which started at 8% in 2020) by 15% each year until it reaches its "terminal" annual growth rate of 1.5%.
Solana gained 7,625 new developers in 2024 (an 83% increase from 2023), while Ethereum only gained 6,456 new developers. It also hosted some big token launches this year, including the TRUMP meme coin and Global Dollar stablecoin.
CRYPTO: SOL
Key Data Points
Should E*Trade's customers buy these three tokens?
All three coins have plenty of catalysts on the horizon. Bitcoin's value should rise as more institutional investors recognize it as a hedge against inflation and the devaluation of fiat currencies. Ether's value will grow as the Ethereum blockchain attracts more developers, and its Layer 2 blockchains (which bundle together its Layer 1 transactions and process them off-chain at higher speeds) should help it keep pace with Solana. Solana's price could climb as its planned network upgrades and potential ETFs draw in more developers and investors.
I'm a longtime E*Trade customer, and I'm already invested in Bitcoin and Ether through Bitwise's Bitcoin ETF Trust (BITB 2.02%) and Ethereum ETF (ETHW 2.71%). Once E*Trade offers direct crypto trades, I'd consider swapping out those ETFs for the actual tokens -- since they won't be held by third-party firms or be subject to recurring fees. So if you're also an E*Trade customer like me, it might be smart to nibble on these three tokens when they arrive.
