Morgan Stanley: Wall Street's layout of cryptocurrency stems from years of infrastructure development, not a trend-following approach

According to CoinDesk, Amy Oldenburg, the head of digital asset strategy at Morgan Stanley, stated at the New York Digital Assets Summit that the entry of large Wall Street banks into the cryptocurrency space is not driven by concerns over missed opportunities, but rather the result of years of advancing the modernization of financial infrastructure.

Oldenburg pointed out that Morgan Stanley's digital asset strategy covers multiple aspects including trading, asset management, and infrastructure. The bank plans to launch support for tokenized stock trading on its alternative trading system in the second half of 2026, which currently handles stocks, ETFs, and American Depositary Receipts.

Internally, the bank is overhauling its decades-old core systems to support faster settlement and continuous trading. Oldenburg emphasized that the complexity of financial institutions' systems far exceeds the expectations of startups, and no single institution can complete the modernization transformation alone; it requires the collaborative effort of the entire global financial network.