Morgan Stanley applied to the OCC for a national trust bank charter to custody digital assets, offering staking services under the name Morgan Stanley Digital Trust.
Morgan Stanley has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter, aiming to become one of the first major Wall Street banks to directly custody crypto assets.
Morgan Stanley submitted its application to the OCC on February 18, 2026, seeking to establish "Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association" as a federally chartered national trust bank. According to Bloomberg, the new entity would custody digital assets and facilitate client transactions including purchases, sales, swaps, and transfers of cryptocurrencies.
The OCC confirmed receipt of the filing and opened a public comment period running through March 20, 2026. If approved, the subsidiary would also offer fiduciary staking services, allowing institutional clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings while keeping assets under regulated custody.
The application marks a shift from the advisory and ETF-focused approach Wall Street has taken toward crypto. Rather than simply offering exposure through funds, Morgan Stanley is building the infrastructure layer, the custody, settlement, and fiduciary plumbing that institutional investors need before committing large allocations.
A national trust bank charter from the OCC would place Morgan Stanley Digital Trust under direct federal supervision, sidestepping the patchwork of state-level crypto regulations. This model avoids the capital and liquidity requirements tied to deposit-taking institutions while providing the regulatory clarity that pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds demand.
The OCC comment period closes March 20. Final approval could come within the three-month review window, potentially launching the subsidiary by mid-2026. Other major banks may follow with similar applications as the regulatory path becomes clearer under the new stablecoin and market structure legislation moving through Congress.
Morgan Stanley's move signals that Wall Street's crypto ambitions now extend beyond trading desks and ETF wrappers. If approved, the trust bank would give institutional investors a federally regulated on-ramp for direct crypto custody, a step that could accelerate capital flows into digital assets.
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