Morgan Stanley Seeks OCC Bank Charter for Crypto Custody Services

Morgan Stanley’s wealth and investment management businesses had $9.3 trillion in client assets as of the fourth quarter of 2025. The proposed national trust bank would bring digital asset custody, trading, settlement and staking infrastructure into the group, reflecting efforts by major Wall Street banks to accelerate the development of their own crypto-finance infrastructure.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency received Morgan Stanley Digital Trust’s application on February 18, 2026, and granted preliminary conditional approval on June 18. The institution cannot begin operations until it meets the OCC’s opening requirements. For its first three years, it must maintain at least $50 million in Tier 1 capital, with at least half held in eligible liquid assets, as well as sufficient funds to cover 180 days of operating expenses.

Traditional banks are integrating crypto assets into existing custody, reporting and tax processes as spot Bitcoin ETFs fuel institutional demand. Citigroup, with about $2.5 trillion in assets, and Morgan Stanley, which manages about $8 trillion in client assets, are expanding their presence in the sector. Their efforts focus on lowering the barriers institutions face in managing private keys and allowing digital assets to share financial infrastructure with securities and cash.

Citigroup said on February 27, 2026, that it would launch institutional-grade Bitcoin custody and support cross-asset collateralization during the year. Morgan Stanley applied to the OCC on February 18 for a digital asset trust bank charter and launched its own Bitcoin Trust on April 8. On April 11, it also disclosed that it was evaluating tokenized money market funds and tax-saving strategies for crypto assets.

Morgan Stanley, which manages about $1.9 trillion in assets, has applied to launch a spot bitcoin ETF with Coinbase Custody and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) serving as joint custodians. The fund would be valued daily using the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark Rate, reflecting major U.S. banks’ accelerating push into crypto assets.

Morgan Stanley has filed an amended S-1 with the U.S. SEC for the MSBT Bitcoin ETF, setting its management fee at 0.14%, 11 basis points below BlackRock’s comparable product. If it successfully completes the regulatory process, the fund is expected to list on a Wednesday in April and could reach customers through Morgan Stanley’s roughly 16,000 financial advisers.