Citigroup plans to launch institutional bitcoin custody later this year, integrating it into traditional banking frameworks. Morgan Stanley has applied for a national trust charter to support crypto trading for its clients and is advancing spot trading on E*TRADE. These moves reflect growing institutional demand for digital assets within regulated systems.
Citigroup announced plans to introduce institutional bitcoin custody in 2026, aiming to integrate the cryptocurrency into its existing custody, reporting, and tax frameworks for traditional assets. Nisha Surendran, head of Citi’s digital asset custody product buildout, described the initiative at the World Strategy Forum as an effort to “make bitcoin bankable.” She explained that clients will manage bitcoin alongside securities and cash in a single safekeeping account, enabling cross-margining between digital and traditional assets. “We will be offering our clients a single service model across crypto, securities and money,” Surendran said, with transactions handled via SWIFT, APIs, or user interfaces. Clients have expressed demand for exposure to bitcoin without managing wallets and keys themselves.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley, which oversees about $8 trillion in assets, is deepening its digital asset involvement. The firm filed for bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana exchange-traded products and is exploring wallet technology across its wealth platform. It announced a partnership with Zerohash in September to enable spot crypto trading on E*TRADE and is evaluating lending and yield opportunities tied to digital assets. Amy Golenberg, the bank’s head of digital assets, stated at the Strategy World event, “We need to build this internally. We can’t just rent the technology.”
On February 18, 2026, Morgan Stanley applied for a national trust charter for its proposed subsidiary, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust National Association, headquartered in Purchase, New York. The trust would custody digital assets, facilitate purchases, sales, swaps, transfers, and fiduciary staking to support client investments. This application aligns with a surge in crypto-related trust charters approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, including those for BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. Both banks are adapting infrastructure for 24/7 markets, with Citi’s Token Services already enabling round-the-clock cash movements.
