Morgan Stanley receives OCC conditional approval for digital-asset trust charter

Morgan Stanley has received the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s conditional approval for a proposed trust charter tied to digital assets, according to reporting. The approval is conditional rather than final, meaning the regulator has agreed to the concept subject to specified requirements and further steps.

The arrangement centers on a new digital-asset trust, described in the reporting as having to meet a minimum capitalization threshold. The proposal must maintain at least $50 million in tier 1 capital, a measure commonly used by bank regulators to gauge core, loss-absorbing equity and related instruments.

In addition to the capital requirement, the regulator’s conditions extend to governance and future changes. The trust must obtain the OCC’s “nonobjection” before making changes to its business scope or its list of directors, according to the same report.

While Morgan Stanley is an established U.S. bank holding company, a trust charter of this type would represent a distinct regulatory wrapper for a firm’s digital-asset-related activities. Trust charters can be used to authorize certain custody and fiduciary services, and the OCC’s role is to oversee whether the proposed entity can operate safely and in compliance with applicable banking and trust rules.

The reported approval also highlights how regulators are treating digital-asset products and platforms as banking activities that require capital, controls, and board oversight. For companies pursuing token-related custody or related trust services, regulators have increasingly emphasized governance processes and resiliency, not just technology.

Morgan Stanley did not publicly outline additional operational details in the cited report beyond what was described as part of the OCC’s conditional terms. The post, as characterized in the prompt, focuses on the capital floor and the requirement for the OCC’s nonobjection for business or director changes, rather than giving a timetable for a launch or specific initial services.

What happens next will likely depend on whether the trust satisfies the conditions to the regulator’s satisfaction and completes any remaining administrative steps required to finalize authorization. Market participants will also watch for any subsequent OCC communications that indicate whether the nonobjection framework will constrain the trust’s ability to expand or reorganize its activities after approval.