Did you see that Morgan Stanley just applied for a banking license to custody cryptocurrencies? Like, Wall Street is really diving into this space now. The giant submitted the application for an entity called Morgan Stanley Digital Trust with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The most interesting part is that this isn’t out of nowhere. The bank has been making some interesting moves over the past few years – it started in 2021 offering Bitcoin to high-net-worth clients, then began working with stablecoin infrastructure last year to enable clients to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Now they want to officially custody cryptocurrencies, just like a regular bank would.

And it’s not just Morgan Stanley. Other crypto giants are also applying for these banking licenses. The thing is, a license like this allows you to custody digital assets and move money for clients in the same way a traditional bank does. It’s basically full legitimation.

The scene is changing quickly indeed. It seems that now that the political environment has become more favorable, everyone wants to be part of this crypto assets game. From Wall Street to crypto startups, everyone is after the same thing – the ability to operate as a real financial institution.