Morgan Stanley is quietly laying the groundwork for what it believes will be the next phase of wealth management—one where digital assets, private company ownership, and traditional finance are no longer treated as separate worlds.
Beginning in 2026, the bank plans to connect these areas into a single operating model aimed at long-term investors rather than short-term trends.
Key takeaways
- Morgan Stanley is building a unified platform that links crypto, private equity, and traditional investing.
- Digital asset trading and a proprietary wallet are central to its 2026 roadmap.
- Partnerships and acquisitions are designed to deepen access to private companies before IPOs.
- Tokenization is seen as a future driver of faster, simpler private-market transactions.
At the center of this shift is Morgan Stanley’s belief that the mechanics of finance are evolving. Jed Finn, who oversees the firm’s wealth management business, has emphasized that clients increasingly hold value across very different forms of assets—from listed stocks to private shares to blockchain-based instruments—and expect them to work together.
One of the most visible changes will come through digital assets. Through a partnership with Zerohash, the firm plans to allow clients of E*Trade to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in the first half of 2026. Later that year, Morgan Stanley expects to introduce its own digital wallet, designed not just for holding coins, but for managing and transacting any asset that exists in digital form.
The ambition goes beyond simple buying and selling. The bank is exploring ways to let clients borrow against digital holdings to invest in traditional securities, or structure loans backed by crypto assets that remain in cold storage. The broader objective is to remove the hard lines that have historically separated conventional banking from digital finance.
Expanding access to private-company wealth
Private companies are the other major pillar of the strategy. Morgan Stanley has strengthened its relationship with Carta, allowing the bank to deliver financial planning services directly to employees and founders through Carta’s platform. This gives the firm early connections to individuals whose wealth often exists on paper for years, long before a public listing provides liquidity.
To widen that access further, Morgan Stanley is in the process of acquiring EquityZen, with the transaction expected to close in early 2026. Once completed, the deal would enable everyday wealth clients to invest in private companies that are still far from an IPO. The logic is straightforward: companies are staying private much longer than they did in the past, and a growing share of value creation now happens outside public markets.
EquityZen also complements the Carta partnership. Because it works closely with issuing companies, it avoids complex structures that can obscure ownership. Together, the two platforms could help Morgan Stanley manage private share sales, keep ownership records current, and support companies seeking limited liquidity without a full public offering.
Looking ahead, the bank sees tokenization as a potential catalyst for change. While private-share transactions will initially follow traditional processes, Morgan Stanley expects digital representations of equity to eventually make trading faster and more efficient, with near-instant settlement and far less paperwork.
Rather than treating crypto, private markets, and wealth management as isolated initiatives, Morgan Stanley is betting that their convergence will define the next generation of finance—and it is positioning itself now for clients with decades-long investment horizons.
A broader institutional bet on crypto assets
At the same time, Morgan Stanley has taken another concrete step toward expanding its regulated crypto offerings by filing an S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot Ethereum Trust. The move comes just days after similar filings tied to Bitcoin and Solana, reinforcing the view that the bank is pursuing a coordinated, multi-asset strategy rather than experimenting with a single crypto product. Backed by roughly $1.3 trillion in assets under management, the filings carry far more institutional weight than those of smaller players and point to long-term positioning rather than short-term market timing.
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