Morgan Stanley: It will still take time for Bitcoin to enter U.S. bank balance sheets, but preparations are already underway.

According to CoinDesk, Amy Oldenburg, Head of Digital Asset Strategy at Morgan Stanley, stated at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas that U.S. banks may hold bitcoin on their balance sheets in the future—but the timeline remains uncertain due to guidance from the Federal Reserve, the Basel Accords, and global regulatory requirements. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s recently launched MSBT—the first bank-issued bitcoin ETP—drew over $100 million in inflows within its first six days of listing, all sourced exclusively from self-directed investment channels and not yet made available to financial advisors. Oldenburg noted that slow adoption by the advisor channel stems primarily from an education gap; the bank has initiated internal training programs to address this and is applying for a digital trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to support direct custody of crypto assets and spot crypto trading services.