Morgan Stanley has applied for a national trust bank charter that would allow the bank to hold digital assets on behalf of its clients — a move in rhythm with the recent expansion of crypto.
A public filing with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) shows that an application for a bank trust charter was received on February 18 under the name “Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association”.
According to Bloomberg and Forbes, more details of the business plan were released on Friday, according to which the subsidiary of Morgan Stanley will hold certain digital assets and perform purchases, sales, swaps and transfers to support the client’s investment activities along with the crypto rate.
A national bank trust charter authorizes a financial institution to engage in fiduciary activities such as trust services, custody, and custody of assets. “De novo” is the Latin term for “again,” meaning that it is a newly created entity, not an acquired one.
This is Morgan Stanley’s first charter of trust with a specific focus on crypto, and follows 14 requests for bank charters in 2025. There are approximately 60 national bank trusts in the U.S. that are overseen by the OCC.
Hurry up for charters of crypto banks
In December, the OCC conditionally approved five applications for crypto-related national trust banks, including First National Currency Bank, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.
Stablecoin platform Bridge, owned by payments processor Stripe, said it received conditional approval for a national trust bank earlier this month, followed by Crypto.com on Monday.
related to: OCC proposal seeks to settle stablecoin yield debate and clear path for CLARITY
A few days later, Payoneer, a global financial services company, said it has applied for a national trust bank charter in the US, which could allow it to issue a stablecoin and offer various cryptographic services.
Morgan Stanley is doubling down on crypto
Morgan Stanley has accelerated its move into crypto in recent months. In January, the Wall Street bank tapped equity markets chief Amy Oldenburg to lead its new crypto unit.
A LinkedIn job listing shows that the $2 trillion investment bank is also looking to expand its cryptocurrency team, advertising positions for director of digital asset strategy, digital asset strategist and head of digital asset product.
Morgan Stanley also filed to launch Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) exchange-traded funds in January, and later filed for an Ether (ETH) equity ETF.
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