Morgan Stanley has tapped veteran govt Amy Oldenburg to guide the funding financial institution’s new crypto unit, simply weeks after saying plans to launch three crypto exchange-traded funds and a crypto pockets.
Oldenburg will transition to go of digital asset technique after working in Morgan Stanley’s rising markets fairness workforce since 2001, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Oldenburg has been main the rising markets workforce since November 2021, the place she was tasked with driving the division’s digital asset technique.
Job listings on LinkedIn present the $2 trillion funding financial institution can also be trying to increase its crypto workforce, itemizing positions for digital property technique director, digital property strategist and digital property product lead.
Morgan Stanley filed to launch spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) exchange-traded funds within the first week of 2025 — its first main transfer within the crypto area after largely sitting out the primary wave of institutional adoption over the previous two years.
Later that week, Morgan Stanley filed for a staked Ether (ETH) ETF that seeks to carry ETH whereas staking an undisclosed quantity to earn staking earnings.
If permitted, the funds may carry new inflows to BTC, ETH, and SOL from Morgan Stanley’s 19 million shoppers served by way of its wealth administration division.
It is usually trying to launch a crypto pockets that might help cryptocurrencies and tokenized real-world property, together with shares, bonds and actual property.
Oldenburg advocates for crypto self-custody
In previous public appearances, Oldenburg has careworn the significance of the “Not your keys, not your cash” idea and the necessity to construct out higher self-custody infrastructure, significantly for these in rising markets. She additionally said in March final yr that she was “towards ETFs” as they didn’t present staking on the time.
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“I would like my liquidity 24/7, and likewise we’ve shoppers that need to transfer property that they’ve and probably financial institution them with us and be capable of leverage all the options that the digital property area permits you,” Oldenburg stated on the Digital Property Summit 2025.
Oldenburg was referring to the restrictions of ETFs with crypto staking and yield-bearing merchandise on the time; nonetheless, the Paul Atkins-led Securities and Change Fee has since demonstrated an openness to a broader vary of crypto merchandise.
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