Morgan Stanley has chosen BNY Mellon and Coinbase as the custodians of its Bitcoin Trust ETF, as per a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Both custodians are expected to provide custody services for the ETF’s Bitcoins, apart from playing an integral role in the ETF’s operational processes.
As per the recent filing, the custodians are expected to store the ETF’s Bitcoins in cold storage. Cold storage is used to store the private keys of the Bitcoins offline. However, the Bitcoins are to be transferred to hot wallets in the event of ETF creations and redemptions.
BNY Mellon is chartered as a New York state bank, while Coinbase is chartered as a New York state limited liability trust company. Both custodians are authorized to provide custody services and execute trades on digital assets.
Source: SEC
Morgan Stanley Moves Ahead With Spot Crypto ETFs
Morgan Stanley filed their applications for a spot Bitcoin and Solana ETF in January. The two funds are structured as a passive investment option, holding the underlying cryptocurrency. The funds will track prices instead of using active management.
The ETF arrives during a period of increased institutional participation activity. The news is released even as Bitcoin is 42% lower than its high, which was around $126,000. The market conditions have not dissuaded investors from moving their capital into top Bitcoin ETFs.
There has been a shift in sentiment in the market, and this is reflected in the latest flows in the market. BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF had flows of $322 million on Tuesday.
The flows offset those from rival funds, including those from Fidelity and Grayscale. The flows this week totaled $683.3 million.
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This latest move comes after a week where $787.3 million flowed into the market. This was after five weeks of outflows, which totaled nearly $4 billion. This renewed demand is a testament to institutional demand.
ETF Launch Expected to Support Talent and RWA Innovation
Morgan Stanley’s ETF is entering the market after nearly two years of Bitcoin ETFs first entering the market in the United States. Bitwise advisor Jeff Park said this gives Morgan Stanley a defined position in the crypto space. And it can benefit them even if it doesn’t match the scale of some of its larger competitors.
During the bank’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, its CEO, Ted Pick, said that the bank is in a good place in terms of crypto and tokenized assets and that further development is still ahead of the firm.
The ETF launch could also benefit Morgan Stanley in terms of acquiring professional skills from the crypto space, said Park.
He also believes that this talent could be utilized for developing projects such as trading tokenized real-world assets. Park also said that the entry of another financial institution is proof of interest in crypto assets.
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