Morgan Stanley sees tokenized assets at $3T–$10T by 2030

Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset strategy has backed expectations for a $3 trillion–$10 trillion tokenized asset market by 2030 while moving the bank’s expected tokenized equity trading support to early 2027.

Amy Oldenburg, Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset strategy, said in a TOKEN2049 interview that she was confident tokenized real-world assets would reach the forecast range by the end of the decade.

“We’ll definitely be within that range without question.”

While backing that estimate, the executive identified private shares, structured notes and investment funds as areas where blockchain could reduce paperwork and simplify administrative tasks. Her comments covered financial products beyond publicly traded stocks, including assets whose ownership and transfers require more involved processing.

Morgan Stanley sees opportunities in private assets and funds

For private shares, custom financial products and access to private funds, Oldenburg sees opportunities to replace parts of the administrative process with blockchain-based systems. She also pointed to the potential use of tokenized holdings as collateral once more assets become available in that form.

In the executive’s account, institutional interest has accelerated alongside a growing number of announcements over the past year. She described financial institutions as increasingly concerned about missing opportunities in the sector.

Alongside that interest, Morgan Stanley is preparing to support tokenized equities through its alternative trading system, or ATS. According to Oldenburg, the first quarter of 2027 is now a more realistic window than the second half of 2026 she indicated in March.

Product supply remains a constraint, the executive explained, because customers need suitable securities to trade before the bank can support them on its venue. She said client demand remains limited partly because the products do not yet exist.

The bank’s team is continuing to build the required infrastructure, according to the interview. Oldenburg described the planned service as an extension of Morgan Stanley’s existing work with equities, derivatives and swaps, with clients potentially holding investments in both traditional and blockchain-based formats.

Institutional collateral use provides another tokenization route

Separate research from Citi points to demand for tokenization in financing and margin operations. As crypto.news reported on Sep. 27, the bank found that 77% of financial institutions expected to use some form of tokenized collateral during 2026.

Prepared with The ValueExchange, Citi’s Sep. 24 report examined tokenized cash, money-market funds, government bonds and other assets used to meet financing obligations. According to the research, large institutions manage an average of roughly $74 billion in collateral daily across around 65 custody locations.

Citi estimated that about 25% of collateral can remain unremunerated or be posted as an additional buffer because existing systems cannot always move assets when required. At an individual institution, idle collateral can reach approximately $15 billion, contributing to an estimated $346 million in annual lost income for large firms.

With around 60% of global margin held in non-yielding cash, Citi identified tokenized money-market funds as a possible way to combine investment income with faster transfers. The bank said blockchain-based collateral could reduce reliance on prefunding by allowing assets to move closer to when payment or margin obligations arise.

DTCC’s October service would retain existing securities custody

For U.S. securities markets, Oldenburg identified DTCC’s planned tokenization service launch at the end of October as a development Morgan Stanley is watching.

In its July 15 announcement, DTCC said more than 30 firms participated in production transactions using tokenized representations of assets held at the Depository Trust Company. The transactions included securities lending, collateral pledges, equity transfers, and U.S. Treasury repurchase agreements.

According to DTCC, the conversions ran across its private Besu network and the public Canton Network. Its service would let participating institutions convert eligible securities between conventional and tokenized forms and deliver the representations to supported wallets.

For American investors, DTCC said the tokenized assets would retain the ownership rights, entitlements and investor protections attached to their traditional equivalents. The organization said its service followed a December 2025 SEC no-action letter covering tokenization of assets in DTC custody.

Institutional participation has also expanded through DTCC’s advisory group. On Sep. 2, HashKey announced that it had joined DTCC’s working group as its first Asian digital asset service provider, naming JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange among participating organizations.

HashKey said it would contribute Asia-Pacific regulatory and operational experience to discussions about issuance, settlement and custody standards.

Morgan Stanley is testing technology and building custody services

Within the bank, blockchain research is taking place through a recently established Digital Asset Lab. Sep. 29 coverage detailed Morgan Stanley’s Digital Asset Lab plans, including tests involving tokenized deposits, digital currencies, money-market funds and decentralized finance vaults.

Megan Brewer, who leads market innovation and labs at Morgan Stanley, told Bloomberg that employees could examine blockchain applications without testing them on the bank’s core systems. Her comments included research into software capable of carrying out investment strategies around the clock.

According to Oldenburg’s TOKEN2049 interview, Morgan Stanley is also developing proprietary wallet infrastructure for customers holding tokenized assets and financial products.

On the regulatory side, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary conditional approval on June 18 for Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, a proposed national trust bank in Purchase, New York.

The OCC decision lists planned activities including digital asset custody, purchases, sales, swaps, and transfers supporting client investments. It also covers fiduciary staking services and collateral administration for an affiliate’s digital asset lending business.

Under the approval conditions, the proposed trust must maintain at least $50 million in tier 1 capital, with at least half held in eligible liquid assets. The OCC also requires a separate liquid-asset reserve covering 180 days of operating expenses during its first three years of operation.