Morgan Stanley Launches Cheapest ETH, SOL ETFs

Crypto Hacks Hit Record Pace | 1inch Launches Aqua Liquidity Layer

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
July 29, 2026

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Good Morning.

Morgan Stanley just underpriced every altcoin ETF issuer on the market with its Ethereum and Solana launches, a fee war opening salvo that pressures smaller providers to cut margins or lose distribution to Wall Street's biggest brokerage.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: Morgan Stanley Launches Cheapest ETH, SOL ETFs 👀
Case Study: Crypto Hacks Hit Record Pace 🔎
Governance & Features: 1inch Launches Aqua Liquidity Layer 🦄

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Narratives: ETF Fee War

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WHAT MATTERS

Morgan Stanley Launches Cheapest ETH, SOL ETFs

State of play: Morgan Stanley entered the crypto ETF race with Ethereum and Solana funds priced below every existing competitor, undercutting Grayscale and Franklin Templeton while adding staking rewards most rivals don't offer.

Morgan Stanley's ETH and SOL funds (MSSE, MSOL) both charge a 0.14% sponsor fee, the lowest in the market.
The firm will stake a portion of the funds' ETH and SOL holdings to generate additional yield for investors.
Morgan Stanley's existing spot bitcoin ETF has pulled in roughly $400M in assets over four months despite a bearish market.
21Shares countered by cutting its Solana ETF fee to 0% for one year, temporarily becoming the cheapest SOL option.
Solana and Hyperliquid ETFs together made up nearly 80% of non-BTC, non-ETH altcoin ETF volume as of last week.

Why it matters: Morgan Stanley entering with the lowest fees on the street signals altcoin ETFs are moving from niche bets to a full fee war among major issuers.

Our take: A 0.14% fee from a firm with $14B in ETF AUM is a warning shot at smaller issuers who can't compete on price, expect consolidation or a race to zero.

For builders and investors: Compressing fees and staking rewards make Solana and Ethereum ETFs more attractive holds, watch for flow data to confirm whether Morgan Stanley's distribution edge translates into AUM share.

CASE STUDY

Crypto Hacks Hit Record Pace

Crypto exploits hit an all time high in incident count during H1 2026 even as dollar losses stayed below last year's Bybit-inflated total, with Blockaid warning North Korean hackers and AI agent exploits will keep driving the next wave.

Blockaid verified more exploits in H1 2026 alone than in all of 2025 combined, calling it the most hacked half year on record.
DPRK-linked hackers stole nearly $600M, including the $285M Drift exploit and $292M KelpDAO exploit via social engineering.
Ethereum and Solana were hit hardest, losing $332M and $326M respectively, though through different attack methods.
Immunefi and Quill Audits reported lower H1 totals near $935M to $972M, though all three trackers confirmed record incident volume.
Blockaid expects AI agent exploits to accelerate in H2, citing Bankr's $216K hack as the first of its kind.

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INSIGHTS

Chain Activity Rises as Prices Fall

State of play: Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche are all seeing more activity at lower cost, yet ETH, SOL and AVAX have each dropped by roughly half over the past year, a divergence Bitwise says reflects sentiment rather than fundamentals.

Bitwise's Kam Benbrik said blockspace is getting cheaper while onchain activity is increasing despite falling token prices.
Network revenues declined sharply across all three chains, driven mainly by cheaper blockspace rather than weaker demand.
A record 40.2M ETH, one-third of total supply, was staked by end of Q2, driven largely by institutional inflows.
Ethereum's annualized staking yield hit 2.84% versus Solana's 6.25%, though over 90% of both came from token issuance, not fees.
Bitmine staked over 4.9M of its 5.8M ETH holdings, making it the largest Ethereum treasury by stake size.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

1inch Launches Aqua Liquidity Layer

1inch publicly launched Aqua, a self-custodial liquidity system across 13 chains that lets providers back multiple trading positions from one wallet balance instead of locking funds into pools, targeting an estimated $1.6B in idle DEX liquidity.

Aqua pulls tokens from a provider's wallet only when a swap matches, settling trades and fees in one atomic transaction.
A $100,000 balance can back three positions quoting $300,000 in combined liquidity, with no borrowing involved.
Dune research commissioned by 1inch found 85% of concentrated DEX liquidity sat underutilized in H1 2026.
1inch committed 10M 1INCH tokens to a liquidity reward program, with a further 500,000 USDC pending DAO approval.
Aqua underwent eight security audits and is designed to never custody user tokens directly.

Other notable feature updates:

Uniswap activates fee switch.
Curve proposes new syrupUSDC market.
Galaxy launches Monad AUSD credit vault.
Aave Labs is proposing a consumer-focused app.
Covenant launched the first tranched DEX LP position on Monad.

QUICK BITES

Crypto hacks hit record high in H1 2026 as losses top $1B.
Robinhood Chain deposits climb but volume and users fade.
Russia's central bank drafts first rules for ‘organized’ crypto trading.
Ethereum L2 ecosystem loses momentum as TVL drops to 2-year low.
Morgan Stanley debuts Ethereum and Solana ETFs with market's lowest fee.
Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche get busier and cheaper even as token fall.
1inch launches Aqua publicly, a shared liquidity layer for DeFi across 13 chains.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Slippage’s read on the Latest Crypto Drama.
ETH Daily’s read on ETH Next Major Update.
Nic Carter’s read on The stablecoin duopoly is ending.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.