- Morgan Stanley utilized for a banking licence so it could custody crypto.
- The bank has dived deeper into the digital asset house in recent times.
- A lot of crypto firms have utilized for banking licences.
Wall Avenue big Morgan Stanley has utilized for a de novo nationwide belief bank charter to permit it to custody crypto.
A submitting submitted to the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Forex this week reveals that the New York-based bank filed for an entity referred to as the Morgan Stanley Digital Belief. Bloomberg first reported the information.
The submitting comes as a variety of crypto-native firms file to get banking licences. Morgan Stanley, a titan on the planet of conventional finance, has delved deeper into the crypto world in recent times.
Morgan Stanley didn’t instantly reply to questions from DL News.
Morgan Stanley’s strikes
Morgan Stanley has been making huge crypto strikes for years now. It began in 2021 providing rich purchasers publicity to Bitcoin by way of funds reminiscent of these by Galaxy Digital.
The bank’s CEO and Chairman Ted Choose said final yr that the bank was working with regulators to see how they may supply crypto safely.
Wow, they actually going all the best way. Do not forget in addition they have spot btc and eth ETFs in registration too. Esp notable IMO given they’ve 16k advisors that handle $7T for 18 million folks. It is like an enormous community of Boomer cash. https://t.co/BwNgFObkVk
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 27, 2026
Morgan Stanley additionally began working with stablecoin infrastructure agency Zerohash in 2025 to permit purchasers on its on-line brokerage platform to commerce Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana.
And final month, the bank filed to debut its personal Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds.
Prime Wall Avenue corporations have been pushing additional into the world of crypto since Donald Trump, who acquired help and monetary banking from digital asset entrepreneurs, grew to become president.
What’s with the banking licence?
Prime crypto corporations like Coinbase and Trump-backed crypto firm World Liberty Monetary have additionally utilized to the OCC for a banking licence.
The regulator has additionally given conditional approval to the likes of Crypto.com, Ripple, Circle, BitGo and others.
Such a licence would permit crypto corporations like exchanges to custody belongings and transfer cash for prospects in the best way a conventional bank would.
Morgan Stanley’s transfer reveals that Wall Avenue giants are additionally eager on having the ability to custody digital belongings.
Mathew Di Salvo is a information correspondent with DL News. Bought a tip? Electronic mail at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.
