E*Trade
“Can Morgan Stanley's mass-market digital brokerage platform become the financial hub for self-directed retail investors by layering crypto, banking, lending, and wealth management onto a trusted trading brand?”
Founded in 1982 as TradePlus, E*TRADE pioneered self-directed electronic brokerage for retail investors and went public in 1996 at the dawn of the internet trading era. Over decades it built a full suite of self-directed investing, banking, and retirement products, competing as an independent discount broker. Morgan Stanley acquired it in October 2020 for ~$13B, rebranding it 'E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley' and integrating it as the firm's mass-market digital brokerage arm. In 2026, E*TRADE launched crypto trading powered by Zero Hash—its most significant embedded finance addition post-acquisition—signaling Morgan Stanley's intent to expand the platform's product breadth.