Bank Planning Big Move Into Crypto

Speaking with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Pick said his bank is working with US regulators to see how it can enter the market.

That’s another big splash into the sea of cryptocurrency by traditional finance corporations, making the industry’s dream of institutional adoption a reality.

Crypto’s Institutional Adoption Is Happening

Institutional adoption has always been a key part of the overall industry’s broadest roadmap for the future. Major US banks like Morgan Stanley used to ignore Bitcoin and other crypto assets. Then they laughed at them and derided them as criminal, if not impractical and foolish.

But now, major players in corporate finance, like investment management giant BlackRock and now Morgan Stanley, have entered the bustling scene. Jamie Dimon’s JP Morgan and company may still be a holdout on crypto, but its competitors are entering the field with rabid ambitions to remake the world using blockchain’s techniques and platforms.

When Sorkin asked about his views on cryptocurrency, Pick said his bank was ready to act. But it wants to be sure to do so with regulatory approval: “For us, the equation is really around whether we, as a highly regulated financial institution, can act as transactors.”

That would allow Morgan Stanley to utilize the blockchain and provide cryptocurrency services to its customers. “We’ll be working with Treasury and the other regulators to figure out how we can offer that in a safe way,” Pick said.

Morgan Stanley Takes Lead on Bitcoin

Morgan Stanley is a leviathan in the traditional finance world. But it has been quicker than its competitors to jump on the blockchain bandwagon with the moon boys. It was among the first U.S. banks to offer BTC custody services to wealthy clients in 2021.

During 2024’s Bitcoin ETF rush, the Midtown Manhattan banking giant took the lead in buying BTC exchange-traded funds. The company revealed a $269 million investment in Bitcoin ETFs last year.

Pick’s statements to CNBC weren’t the only good news out of Davos for crypto from the banking sector this week. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said if regulators give the go-ahead, “you will find the banking system will come in hard on the transactional side of it.”