Financial Giant Morgan Stanley Acquires E*Trade For $13 Billion

If you have logged in today to see news on the topic of regulation crypto exchange and how countries are regulating crypto, this news story is quite connected and similar. As reports show, the major investment bank and financial giant Morgan Stanley is buying the online trading firm E*Trade Financial Group which would extend the bank’s offerings to everyday investors.

This $13 billion deal marks the largest takeover for Morgan Stanley since the crisis of 2008 which is why it is noteworthy in our cryptocurrency news. The purchase will also see the major investment bank get the 5+ million clients that E*Trade currently has as well as the $360 billion in assets and an online bank.

As the Wall Street Journal reported on February 20, the financial giant Morgan Stanley will receive over 4,000 corporate customers as well as $580 billion of stock held on behalf of their employees. At the same time, the CEO of the company Michael Pizzi will retain its position and the company will keep its brand, retail storefronts as well as ad campaigns.

In April 2019, E*Trade announced its official plan to begin offering digital currency trading on its platform, when it was related to the regulation crypto exchange news stories. At the time, the company was ready to offer Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) after which it would also add other cryptocurrencies.

As for the financial giant Morgan Stanley, they were in the Bitcoin news for trying to launch swaps tracking BTC futures since early fall in 2018 but did not receive a single contract by the end of that year. Nonetheless, the firm is ready to launch cryptocurrency services as soon as there is any sign of demand, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Wall Street giant postponed its plans to enter the crypto industry more actively as the value of cryptocurrencies fell at the end of 2018. One of their most recent attempts was the launch of Phemex, a new cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform in Singapore. The developers claim that this platform is ten times faster than the traditional crypto trading platforms – and offering 100x leverage to both retail and institutional investors in BTC, ETH and XRP.