Morgan Stanley has filed for a de novo national custodian charter, allowing the bank to hold digital assets on behalf of its clients – a step in step with its recent cryptocurrency expansion.
Audience filing Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) shows that the bank’s trust charter application was filed on February 18 under the name “Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association.”
According to him, more details of the business plan were published on Friday reports from Bloomberg and Forbes, revealing that the Morgan Stanley subsidiary will hold certain digital assets and make purchases, sales, swaps and transfers to support clients’ investment activities, including cryptocurrency staking.
A national trust charter authorizes a financial institution to engage in trust activities, such as custody services, custody and safekeeping of assets. “De novo” is Latin for “anew”, meaning that it is a newly created entity rather than acquired.
This is Morgan Stanley’s first trust agreement with a specific focus on cryptocurrencies, following 14 filings to establish a de novo bank charter in 2025. There are approximately 60 national trust banks in the U.S. supervised by the OCC.
Rush on Crypto Bank Charters
In December, O.C.C conditionally approved five national cryptocurrency custodial bank applications including First National Digital Currency Bank, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.
Stablecoin Bridge platform, owned by payment processing company Stripe, said it had received conditional approval to establish a national custodian bank earlier this month, which waspowered by Crypto.com on Monday.
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A few days later, Payoneer, a global financial services company, said it had applied for a U.S. national custodian bank charter that would allow it to issue a stablecoin and provide various crypto services.
Morgan Stanley is doubling down on cryptocurrency investments
In recent months, Morgan Stanley has accelerated its moves into cryptocurrencies. In January, the Wall Street bank hired equity chief Amy Oldenburg to lead its fresh crypto unit.
Job postings on LinkedIn show that the $2 trillion investment bank also plans to expand its crypto team, announcing positions as director of digital asset strategy, digital asset strategist and digital asset product leader.
In January, Morgan Stanley also filed to launch Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) spot funds, and later filed to launch an Ether (ETH) staking ETF.
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