Morgan Stanley Seeks to Harness Digital Rails for $660 Billion in Wholesale Banking Revenue

Morgan Stanley is shifting its focus from developing crypto products to building infrastructure for digital assets. The bank is testing stablecoins and tokenized assets in an internal lab, with estimates suggesting that 3-11% of wholesale banking revenue could migrate to digital rails by 2030.

The commercial impact of this change will likely come from modifications to payments, collateral, and settlement processes rather than crypto trading alone. Morgan Stanley's research suggests that direct digital-asset activity could add up to $7 billion in incremental revenue by 2030, but the larger effect would be the shift in who captures fees and how much intermediation clients require.

The bank has already quantified the potential threat of this change, with its research estimating that wholesale banks generated approximately $660 billion in revenue in 2025. Direct digital-asset activity could add up to $7 billion in incremental revenue by 2030, but the larger effect would be the shift in who captures fees and how much intermediation clients require.