Morgan Stanley Pushes Back Launch of Tokenized Stocks to 2027

Morgan Stanley now expects to support tokenized stocks on its alternative trading system (ATS) in the first quarter of 2027 instead of the second half of 2026. This was reported to The Block at Token2049 by Amy Oldenburg, the bank's head of digital strategy.

According to her, the team is building the infrastructure and expects to be ready by the first quarter. “We need a product to support them in ATS. There is essentially no client demand because the product does not exist,” she said.

Oldenburg pointed to the launch of DTCC's tokenization service at the end of the month and the GENIUS Act coming into effect in January as significant milestones. “It's difficult for the institutional side to participate. Approval from the Fed is also a factor, considering Clarity did not pass. We need to further define its elements that are still unclear for traditional organizations,” she added.

Supporting tokenized stocks through ATS, which matches orders outside public exchanges like Nasdaq, fits into the bank's strategy of attracting, distributing, and managing capital on-chain. The bank already offers direct stocks, derivatives, and swaps under the same model and sees tokenization as a continuation of this.

Morgan Stanley is developing its own wallet infrastructure—not non-custodial, but abstracted from the user. Separately, a Digital Asset Lab was created for testing blockchain technologies before going into production. Earlier this year, the bank received conditional approval from the OCC to create a digital trust for custody and staking.

Oldenburg named private stocks, structured notes, and access to private funds as the nearest opportunities for blockchain. She described the trajectory as “securitization of everything.” In response to the $3–10 trillion forecast for tokenized RWA by 2030, she said, “We will definitely be in that range.” “There is a lot of FOMO in the institutional space,” she added.