Morgan Stanley has designated Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon and Coinbase as custodians for its Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, according to an SEC filing. The filing says the custodians will store the fund’s Bitcoin primarily in cold storage, with a portion temporarily moved to hot wallets connected to the internet for creation and redemption processes.
The filing notes that BNY Mellon is chartered as a New York state bank, while Coinbase’s custodian operates as a New York state limited liability trust company. Both provide custody and trade execution services for digital assets.
Morgan Stanley filed applications in January for spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) ETFs. These would be passive funds designed to hold and track the prices of the underlying cryptocurrencies.
The move underscores growing institutional adoption of crypto despite a market downturn that has left BTC roughly 42% below its all-time high near $126,000. ETF flows have recently shifted: BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF recorded $322 million in inflows on Tuesday, offsetting outflows from competitors such as Fidelity and Grayscale. That brought this week’s total inflows to $683.3 million following $787.3 million the prior week—the first net positive week after five consecutive weeks of nearly $4 billion in outflows.
Industry observers say launching a Bitcoin ETF gives Morgan Stanley a formal foothold in the crypto sector even if the fund does not match the scale of leaders like BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust. Jeff Park, an advisor to asset manager Bitwise, said the ETF will help the firm recruit crypto talent and support development of related projects such as tokenized real-world asset trading.
On Morgan Stanley’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, CEO Ted Pick said the bank is “well positioned now in the crypto and tokenized asset space” and indicated further activity in the area. The debut of a major financial institution’s Bitcoin ETF is also viewed as bullish for the broader sector, signaling there remains significant untapped demand among potential investors.
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