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Morgan Stanley Targets Q1 2027 for Tokenized Equity Support
Bank builds onchain infrastructure as Oldenburg backs trillion-dollar RWA growth
TL;DR
- Morgan Stanley now sees Q1 2027 as a more realistic target for supporting tokenized equities on its alternative trading system.
- Amy Oldenburg said limited product availability and institutional permissibility are slowing adoption as the bank builds wallet, lab and trust infrastructure.
- Oldenburg said the tokenized real-world asset market will reach the $3 trillion to $10 trillion range by 2030 “without question.”
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Morgan Stanley now expects to support tokenized equities on its alternative trading system, or ATS, by the first quarter of 2027, pushing back the second-half-of-2026 timeline Amy Oldenburg, the firm’s head of digital asset strategy, indicated in March. The bank is actively building the infrastructure needed to support the products, while Oldenburg said current client demand remains limited because the products themselves are not yet available.
“We need product in order to be able to support them within the ATS,” Oldenburg said during an interview at Token2049. “And the client demand really isn't there because the product doesn't exist. So we just need a little more time to pass.”
Oldenburg pointed to DTCC’s tokenization service launch at the end of this month and the GENIUS Act taking effect in January as developments Morgan Stanley is watching. She also cited regulatory permissibility as an obstacle for traditional institutions.
“For us, but also for clients, it's pretty hard for anyone on the institutional side to engage,” Oldenburg said. “Permissibility from the Fed is also [a factor] with Clarity not going through. It's okay that it didn't go through, but we do need to just tighten up some of the other elements of Clarity that are still less defined for traditional organizations.”
Morgan Stanley’s ATS matches orders outside public exchanges such as the Nasdaq. Oldenburg said adding tokenized equities fits the firm’s strategy of “raising, allocating, and managing capital onchain while helping clients navigate a hybrid world.” Morgan Stanley already offers direct equities, derivatives and swaps through the same model and views tokenization as an extension that can support clients across traditional and onchain formats.
Morgan Stanley expands its onchain infrastructure
Morgan Stanley is also developing proprietary wallet infrastructure designed to be abstracted away from users while allowing them to hold tokenized assets and products. The wallet is not non-custodial. Separately, the firm established a Digital Asset Lab to test blockchain and crypto-native technologies needed to support new products and examine risks and opportunities before moving technology into production.
“If it's perpetuals, prediction markets, any of these newer products, I'm not saying that we're going to do any of those, but if the clients are interested, if the consumer wants them, and there's an opportunity there, we have to be able to support those,” Oldenburg said.
Morgan Stanley also received conditional approval from the OCC earlier this year to establish a digital trust that could custody or stake digital assets for clients. Oldenburg identified private shares, structured notes, custom products and private fund access as near-term tokenization opportunities where blockchain could reduce paperwork and administrative burdens. She said broader tokenization would also raise questions around using those assets as collateral, summarizing the direction as “the securitization of everything.”
Tokenized assets could reach trillions by 2030
Oldenburg backed projections placing the tokenized real-world asset market between $3 trillion and $10 trillion by 2030. “We'll definitely be within that range without question,” she said. Morgan Stanley Research has separately established a more conservative $2.3 trillion base case, driven primarily by collateral mobility, tokenized Treasuries and institutional liquidity management.
RWA.xyz data showed approximately $38.63 billion of tokenized real-world assets as of October 1, excluding stablecoins. The asset mix and growth scenarios were:
Institutional tokenized-equity activity is already expanding. Securitize launched blockchain-based trading for 12 major U.S. stocks, including Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia, on October 8, with tokenized shares backed by actual equities. DTCC is preparing a broader tokenization rollout after work involving more than 50 financial institutions, while BlackRock and JPMorgan have participated in its infrastructure plans.
“Even in the last 12 months, everyone has just been going crazy with announcements,” Oldenburg said. “Energy drives energy across our industry. There's a lot of FOMO in the institutional space.”
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
