--- title: 'Morgan Stanley''s crypto plan is much bigger than Bitcoin' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=g9WFO0M9KT4' video_id: 'g9WFO0M9KT4' date: 2026-08-01 duration_sec: 894 --- # Morgan Stanley's crypto plan is much bigger than Bitcoin > Source: [Morgan Stanley's crypto plan is much bigger than Bitcoin](https://youtube.com/watch?v=g9WFO0M9KT4) ## Summary In this interview, Morgan Stanley's Amy Oldenburg discusses the firm's expanding crypto strategy, including spot crypto trading on E-Trade, Bitcoin/Ethereum/Solana ETPs, and plans for lending, in-kind transfers, and tokenization. She reveals that the first $200M of ETP inflows were self-directed, and outlines how the bank is preparing for a hybrid future of digital assets and AI. ### Key Points - **Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana ETPs** [00:44] — Morgan Stanley is launching ETPs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, giving clients multiple ways to gain crypto exposure. - **Bitcoin ETP Hits $400M** [01:24] — Despite a down market and massive ETF outflows elsewhere, Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETP has gathered $400 million. - **Self-Directed Inflows Lead the Way** [02:45] — The first $200 million into the Bitcoin ETP came from self-directed clients placing trades, before financial advisors or the sales team positioned the product. - **ETFs vs. Spot Crypto** [03:27] — Oldenburg notes that many clients prefer ETFs due to the complexity of the spot crypto route, even though spot trading is available on E-Trade. - **Bear Markets Are Better for Building** [05:27] — Oldenburg agrees that building during bear markets is better because there is less distraction and noise. - **Lending and In-Kind Transfers** [07:01] — Morgan Stanley increased lending rates against ETP exposure and partnered with Galaxy to enable in-kind transfer of spot crypto into ETFs without a sale. - **One View, Tokenized Future** [08:20] — The ultimate goal is a single portfolio view for clients, where backend plumbing doesn't matter; tokenization is expected to play a key role. - **AI and Digital Assets Converge** [11:10] — Oldenburg predicts that AI and digital assets will converge, with agentic-directed trades becoming the hockey stick for growth. - **E-Trade Scale** [13:48] — With roughly 8.5 to 9 million E-Trade customers, Morgan Stanley has broad distribution for its crypto offerings. ### Conclusion Morgan Stanley is building out a comprehensive crypto offering that goes far beyond Bitcoin, spanning spot trading, ETPs, lending, and in-kind transfers, with a long-term vision of tokenized portfolios and AI convergence. ## Transcript planet have been making their way into crypto and none have made a bigger splash in 2026 than Morgan Stanley. Today I'm talking with Amy Oldenburg who's been leading that charge for that institution. We're going to talk about Stanley right now on the Daily Wolf. Let's go. Daily Wolf on Yahoo Finance. I'm your host Scott Melker also known as The Wolf of All Streets and we are live in on location out on the North Fork of Long Island at the Ties Incredible Out East Summit and today I'm joined by Amy from Morgan Stanley. As I said, it's been a big year for you guys. here today. >> So we've had a number of huge with the one that's the most recent although now it's actually the announcement was made now it's actually happening. So Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana Stanley. >> That's right and you know that's we're a real opportunity here to offer our clients a number of different ways to crypto products. So if it's either spot crypto so you can buy, sell, hold on our crypto so you can buy, sell, hold on our E-Trade platform but also if if an ETF is easier for you to use if that's just getting exposure within your wealth and making it easy and look like everything else in your portfolio. We also launched that Bitcoin ETP and it's been amazing to see just the asset when we launched that. >> I don't even know where to start. So that's done 400 million that's at 400 million. Okay, in a down market where all we've heard about is stories of massive ETF outflows. So the fact that impressive enough but 400 million is a pretty large number in context. that's did we really need another ETP? It really there's it's hard for us to continue to launch products if we just don't start with that OG product to get that Bitcoin exposure. And we did want capabilities to offer product that's well priced for the marketplace. We will coming out to market, but for that single asset passive exposure to Bitcoin, we wanted to make sure that that was well priced and that we were operational infrastructure to deliver that to clients. probably, I would imagine, Bitcoin has more ETFs for single asset than any >> Right. And so there was the arguably the come into, but you're uniquely positioned, I think, to have benefited but I believe you obviously have a selling a Morgan Stanley product. And you came in, as you sort of alluded to, bips? >> know what I have to say? I mean, it's sales force, we do have a fantastic sales force and I love all of our sales people that I get to work with on a regular basis. But I would uh I would have to say that first 200 million or so, that was fully self-directed. So we basically barely came out to market. That just came in um from clients that were placing trades. So not even positioned yet by the financial advisors uh or by our sales team. Of course, that's picked up now uh in the last amazing to see even in those first weeks just how much was coming in just on on >> was an organic growth as well. >> It is interesting. And I think the other thing too is I'm still amazed we were talking earlier about uh just being, you know, having background in crypto. Uh but I'm still amazed with how many assets are going into the ETFs. And I think that just speaks to the user experience or the complexity of still going spot cryp that spot crypto route. Uh so if that works for many clients and they just want that price appreciation, advantage of. But I still think it's crypto exposure. And going forward, we will continue to build out that wallet infrastructure as we look at things not only like crypto but tokenization going >> But I don't think that people necessarily think of launching UTPs as a this was you were the big first big commercial bank that really stepped into >> That's true. A couple years ago and I used to sit on our operating committee for asset management business. We did go in to the ETF world and we started adapting some of our investment products to be offered through an ETF capability and it was a natural evolution for us to consider looking into at the digital asset space as we launched this initiative earlier this year having a team focused on digital and pairing that with the expansion of our ETF platform overall that we now have the capability to build on. >> So it's self-directed. I find that interesting cuz I didn't know that. And so that means that the real volume is yet to come. Right? I mean if the sales team really gets out there and talking to individual clients but other institutions it seems like coming in. >> And that and that still requires a lot of education. We still have we we've put out some recommendations on the wealth side in terms of asset allocation percentages to have in your portfolios but that asset allocation work is still relatively limited and there's still exposure. So I think you're right there. There's still more to come and I think unfortunately the environment especially this year it's been tough to add when you have so many other assets across your overall portfolio that have been >> Yeah, we have not done too great. >> Yeah, that's right. >> So you're saying that I've heard it anecdotally so many times. Why would I money in AI? To me that seems like an AI top signal and a crypto bottom signal >> right. Well and I and I always say although some people will say even if we were at 80 it would be better than where we are today. It's really hard to build when we're over 100,000 Bitcoin price. It just has a There's a ton of pressure. There's such an urgency to get out there. I the momentum on the way up when we get so rip-roaring. And then when we get down to some of these lows in the Bitcoin cycles, it gets pretty It's pretty bearish and pretty dire. that across the board, not just from institutions, but protocols, platforms, everyone building where they quietly say, "Bear markets are much better for distraction and without the noise." >> That's 100%. I totally agree with that. next bull market that I assume you believe is coming. >> So, so we are. So, you know, continuing to expand out the exposure to crypto because we still do believe that has an opportunity in client portfolios. And And many clients are asking for it. So, we have to continue to explore what that that path forward looks like, offering more assets, making sure we have more The one thing I will say that we did turn on this year and we've talked about is just even having being able to lend on the back of that ETP exposure. So, we have increased our lending rates to 50%. So, if you have that that crypto exposure in an ETP, we can release up to 15% on those on ETFs. The other thing announcement out there, we're partnering with Galaxy on in-kind transactions. So, this is another way uh if you really don't want to self-custody anymore or you you're looking to bring it and consolidate it with your other wealth assets on the portfolio on the platform, you can actually transfer those spot crypto assets into the ETFs. And And we can provide other services around that. that service set to our clients. >> You sure can. >> So, so you're not getting a sale of the That's exactly what >> That's an incredible opportunity in the market that the SEC has supported us on, uh, as of last year. those three? And, uh, you know, what comes next or how do you decide what natural place to start with some of the largest market caps. Uh, I I don't want to say there is any specific reason. People will argue that's that's not the the top market caps at this point. It's, uh, ever evolving, but our list will continue to evolve also. And we're working very hard to make sure that we >> It's interesting cuz right now you're talking about being able to transfer in kind from spot to ETF or back. What When do we get it where it is just naturally all in one portfolio? Maybe that requires everything to be tokenized. I portfolio and you just borrow against your entire portfolio like people are >> Well, and I think there's, uh, it's a good question. So for many of us that are deep in rebuilding and re-architecting the pipes and plumbing, ultimately for the client, they really shouldn't feel it. To your point, they should have one view. Um, it really shouldn't matter what the back end looks like to them as long as the value add is there, the efficiency is there, and they can continue to, uh, have all the services they need, uh, that that that we can offer them. So what that's that's the thing on the technology side. We that usability is there and that client experience is high. So >> I have an incredible team behind me. Like definitely it's not a one-person effort. It's just a massive effort. Uh, all the time. This is really where the front office and back office come together. We have everything from the investors to the, uh, the bankers to the sales traders, really coming together to make sure that we're looking at all the workflows and then working with our ops and tech and cybersecurity team and others to make sure that we're just delivering that workflow that actually And so there's a lot of work going on internally on that. >> But I would imagine that if everything gets tokenized, that would be the one place. Basically, your portfolio becomes your wallet. >> You know, it's a good question because we believe we'll be living in a hybrid take us some time to build this out across the board. I think the challenge is there's some elements of a hybrid world that will uh that may be more challenging for us to manage before we fully go come over to that we'll potentially live in in the future. >> So, how are you preparing for that though? Because uh it seems like it we everybody talks about it forever and now all of a sudden it's like the DTCC is a year. >> Exactly. That's what I love when they >> the Q. >> Exactly. We always like the we have some it just like makes it a whole takes it >> Exactly. And and you know, that's numbers that we talk about volumes on the crypto side, it just seems like a whole another world. You know, I think there's definitely something that we prepare for there in terms of getting that infrastructure set up. And I think just need to continue to focus on that and it'll be a long road ahead. We need build out for the next decade and beyond. But I don't think it's any we've seen in the past. If it's the transition to electronic trading and some of the other areas of technology that we've really built out in the past, it's just similar. The one other comment that I would make is I do think there's a future of convergence here. We're just talking about digital assets today, but AI and we were talking about the whole idea of agentic agentic directed trades. I think you can really see an an opportunity where this stuff starts to come together and that will be your hockey stick where things really start to take off. If you want to start building at that point, it's going to be >> this is a little give me my next question because you mentioned AI and think that that will be the prevailing trend? Do you think that actively human managed is going to go away, or is it once again we have decades to kind of transition or find how people want to utilize that technology in their own >> don't think it's a black and white answer or or yes or no. I I think it's one of those things where different clients uh prefer different types of service. We have self-directed, we have the e-trade self-directed business. We also have wealth management, which offers very high uh level advisory high net worth investors and family offices. You'll continue to have that same model for differing uh levels of service, the same way we do in any industry today. I think all some of us always joke, if there was an option to hit talk to a human, I would definitely pay for that. >> single time. Every single time. >> And and and AI will continue to improve, too. And sometimes it's okay to talk to the AI and get that answer, get the uh sitting in bed at, you know, 1:00 in the morning trying to deep dive uh uh some topic, and that LLM is working for you just fine uh relative to say an analyst the past. >> And at what point, now that you're offering spot uh assets, at what point do you also turn on, you know, self-custody and sending to, you know, be able to send the assets in and out? >> It's all on the road map. I think we're just working through it now. Uh we also filed for that OCC Digital Trust. That'll be very important for us going forward to to be able to uh support some of the crypto assets in the future, especially in-house. So, uh a road map that we have laid out, timing uh we're just working through that as uh we can get the work done. And unfortunately, There's lots of other things happening all at the same time. I think the thing that's very clear to us, and maybe going back to your question on AI, it's amazing how the cycles just keep getting smaller shorter and shorter. I mean the iterations that we're seeing even on the AI tools. It's just amazing what we've experienced in the last couple of years and I don't expect that to slow down >> I had this massive aha moment when I opened my e-trade account a week or two know it was like a big message that you can now buy and sell. I would imagine nine million cuz eight and a half million nine million e-trade customers? >> Uh you know there's there's definitely uh it it definitely has a pretty wide span of exposure and and we also have our a broader advisory service too that can tap into some of that. The so any of the clients across the wealth management platform can tap into those uh that crypto offering at this point. left but how popular do you think that will be with them as prices rise again >> Yeah you know I think I think clients love having all their assets in one place. I know some of us that live a very complicated life to have multiple accounts across the board. I think we talk about that even with have? We got rid of cable and now we have multiple accounts which make our life more complicated. So what we're trying to do is make sure we're for our clients and and we'll just continue to on that road map to make sure we can turn on more in the future. pleasure getting to sit down with you. Thank you everyone else. We'll see you Thank you everyone else. We'll see you on the next daily wolf. Peace.