Amy Oldenburg, head of digital asset strategy at Morgan Stanley, outlines the regulatory barriers still separating American banks from holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets.
Amy Oldenburg, head of digital asset strategy at Morgan Stanley, told the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas that US banks could in the future hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets, but that the road ahead is still long. Oldenburg, appointed to this role this year, outlined how the bank is laying the groundwork for the expansion of its digital asset business in response to growing client demand.
Among the main obstacles to holding Bitcoin on the balance sheet, Oldenburg cited the Federal Reserve, Basel rules, and the need to obtain approval from multiple global regulators. Without clearing these hurdles, an institution of Morgan Stanley’s size cannot move forward. This is not an isolated position: BNY CEO Robin Vince stated in March that major financial institutions will lead the next phase of adoption, acting as a bridge between traditional finance and digital assets.
In the meantime, Morgan Stanley has not stood still. The bank launched MSBT, a Bitcoin-backed exchange-traded product and the first of its kind issued by a US-licensed bank. The product raised over $100 million in its first six days of trading. Even more significant: all of these inflows came exclusively from self-directed clients, as the product was not yet available through the bank’s financial advisors.
As further proof of sustained demand for regulated Bitcoin exposure, BlackRock’s IBIT product has accumulated over $61 billion in assets, making it the fastest-growing ETF in history since its listing in January 2024. Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $2 billion in net inflows over 8 consecutive days, signaling growing institutional interest.
Oldenburg also revealed that Morgan Stanley is pursuing an OCC digital trust charter, which would allow the bank to directly custody crypto and offer spot trading on its own wealth platform. The MSBT product currently uses Coinbase and BNY Mellon as dual custodians.
