Morgan Stanley’s head of digital assets, Amy Oldenburg, said that lending and yield products tied to Bitcoin and other crypto holdings are under exploration as the bank develops a native custody and trading infrastructure.
“That’s part of the discussion and exploration,” Oldenburg said during a conversation with Strategy CEO Phong Le at Strategy World 2026 this week, addressing a question about whether Morgan Stanley would consider offering yield and lending services against Bitcoin.
“It’s a natural part of the roadmap to continue to explore. We’re in a very early journey on that, just in terms of the number of products that are out in the market,” she added, citing unexpected momentum in decentralized lending this year.
Morgan Stanley will let E*Trade customers buy and sell spot crypto before the bank rolls out its own custody and exchange solution, Oldenburg confirmed. This would make it one of the first major US banks to offer crypto services in-house.
The executive, who spent 13 years overseeing the bank’s emerging markets business before her current role, emphasized that relying solely on third-party technology was insufficient for an institution of its scale. She noted the firm operates in 17 of the top 20 countries by crypto adoption globally.
“People expect Morgan Stanley; they trust our brand to be no fail,” she noted.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management in January filed for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana exchange-traded products.
The bank has also recommended that clients limit Bitcoin exposure to a range of 2% to 4% of portfolio assets.
