[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] Asset manager Morgan Stanley has begun procedures to establish a trust bank to bring cryptocurrency custody, staking and collateral support for lending into the group.

CryptoSlate, a blockchain media outlet, reported on July 15 (local time) that the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) gave Morgan Stanley preliminary conditional approval in June to set up a national trust bank dedicated to digital assets.

The approval opened the way for Morgan Stanley to process functions inside the bank through "Morgan Stanley Digital Trust," ranging from asset safekeeping to transaction administration, trustee-style staking and collateral management that supports affiliate digital asset lending. In the public application, the entity was presented as a national trust bank structured as a wholly owned subsidiary for clients of Morgan Stanley's wealth management business.

The key is to shift control points for crypto services from outside specialist firms to inside a Wall Street bank. The application includes custody, buying and selling, swaps, transfers, trustee-style staking and collateral management. Once final approval is granted, Morgan Stanley can place customer asset custody and transaction management, staking operations and loan collateral work under one roof.

OCC records also support this. The application was classified as a new bank charter under a holding company, and a grant of trust powers was requested. Approval records show the charter action was approved on June 18.

If this structure is completed, the position of existing crypto-native operators could narrow. Custodians, staking managers and collateral service providers whose functions overlap with a trust bank's approved capabilities are likely to be directly affected. If Morgan Stanley holds the most critical control functions in-house, outside firms may see their centrality weaken in customer relationships and day-to-day operating flows.

Not all functions will be internalised. Execution market access, trading liquidity, lending counterparties, validator operations and broader blockchain infrastructure remain areas that still require separate contracts and build-outs. The OCC application distinguishes between functions Morgan Stanley wants to keep inside the bank and areas that outside operators can continue to handle.

Final approval still requires meeting capital and liquidity requirements. Under the OCC's "Corporate Decision 1378," Morgan Stanley Digital Trust must have at least $50 million in core capital and a separate pool of liquid assets, and it must also secure liquidity sufficient to cover operating expenses for 180 days.

The procedure also ties into the broader trend of determining who will hold national-level crypto custody authority in the United States. Morgan Stanley is seeking to bind asset safekeeping and transfers, trustee-style staking and collateral support for affiliate lending into a single system. As a result, external crypto service providers are now in a position where they must prove what added value they can provide in areas that the bank does not keep in-house.