Morgan Stanley Investment Management has filed preliminary prospectuses with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue spot bitcoin and solana exchange traded funds (ETFs). It marks the first spot cryptocurrency ETF issuance by the asset management arm of a global systemically important bank. Last month Goldman Sachs acquired Innovator Asset Management which offers a defined outcome ETF with exposure to bitcoin price movements.
Other G-SIB asset managers have been involved in tokenized money market funds such as UBS uMint and JP Morgan’s MONY, but tokenized money market funds represent more conventional institutional blockchain adoption.
Given the early nature of the filing, Morgan Stanley has not yet mentioned on which exchange the ETFs will list or who will provide custody for the digital assets. Under the previous US administration, banking regulators and the SEC imposed barriers preventing banks from engaging in crypto activities. With the SEC rescinding SAB 121 regarding crypto custody and the OCC recently allowing banks to act as intermediaries for digital asset trading, the landscape is rapidly changing.
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