Arkham Tags Morgan Stanley MSBT Bitcoin Custody Wallets

Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence identified and publicly labeled three on-chain wallets that back Morgan Stanley’s MSBT spot Bitcoin ETF and published a research note on April 17, 2026. The ETF launched on NYSE Arca on April 8, 2026; Morgan Stanley is the first major U.S. bank to offer a spot bitcoin ETF. Morgan Stanley manages roughly $9.3 trillion in client assets.

Arkham mapped the three addresses to MSBT’s custodians, Coinbase and BNY Mellon, and grouped them on a single entity page that shows aggregated balances, inflow and outflow charts, and full transaction history. As of about April 18, 2026, those addresses held roughly 1,348 BTC, valued at about $102.08 million based on bitcoin trading in the $75,700–$76,000 range. The addresses appear with partial public prefixes: bc1qa…, bc1qe… and bc1qn….

Arkham recorded recent inflows to the group, including a 177.757 BTC transfer approximately 23 hours before publication and a 209.296 BTC deposit three days earlier, along with several deposits in the 80–415 BTC range during the ETF’s first two weeks. Arkham reported no material outflows from the labeled addresses.

Spot bitcoin ETFs settle on a T+1 cycle, so on-chain transfers tied to creations or redemptions typically show up with about a one-day lag. Arkham’s dashboard reflects settled blockchain records, providing near real-time visibility once transactions are recorded on-chain. The firm’s April 17 research note describes the methodology used to map custody flows to the fund’s public filings and custodian relationships.

Arkham noted its labels may not include every Morgan Stanley-controlled address. Morgan Stanley’s ETF portal showed 1,820.60 BTC as of April 17, 2026, indicating additional holdings beyond the three addresses Arkham tagged. Arkham’s analytics platform covers more than 450,000 entity pages and billions of address tags and already tracks custody wallets tied to other large holders and seized government assets.

MSBT carries an expense ratio of 0.14%, lower than some other major U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, which charge 0.25% in comparable products. Market data cited by Arkham show MSBT recorded about $34 million in volume on its first trading day and reached roughly $87 million in net assets after five trading days. Arkham previously reported the fund had purchased $83.6 million of bitcoin since inception and at that earlier time held $64.4 million across its on-chain addresses; holdings have increased since then.

The public labeling allows observers, both retail and institutional, to monitor MSBT’s on-chain accumulation without waiting for periodic regulatory filings.