REPORTED: based on an interview Morgan Stanley’s head of digital asset strategy, Amy Oldenburg, gave The Block at Token2049, published 12 October 2026. Morgan Stanley has not issued a press release. This is an expectation, not a launch date.
Morgan Stanley now sees the first quarter of 2027 as a more realistic time to start supporting tokenized equities on its alternative trading system (ATS), Amy Oldenburg told The Block [1]. In March she had pointed to the second half of 2026. According to The Block, she said the team is building the infrastructure and expects to be in a position to support the activity by Q1 [1].
Why the wait
“We need product in order to be able to support them within the ATS,” Oldenburg said. “And the client demand really isn’t there because the product doesn’t exist. So we just need a little more time to pass” [1].
Put simply: the bank can build the venue, but there are not yet enough tokenized shares to trade on it, so clients are not asking for it yet.
She pointed to two things the firm is watching, according to The Block: DTCC’s tokenization service, which she said launches at the end of this month, and the GENIUS Act, the US stablecoin law, which she said comes into effect in January [1].
What is an ATS?
An alternative trading system is a private marketplace where buy and sell orders are matched outside public stock exchanges such as the Nasdaq. Big banks run them so clients can trade large blocks of shares away from the public order book. Morgan Stanley already offers equities, derivatives and swaps through this model, and Oldenburg described tokenization as an extension of it [1].
What are tokenized equities?
A tokenized equity is a share (or a claim on a share) recorded as a digital token on a blockchain instead of only in a traditional broker’s database. The idea is that it can move and settle faster, trade for longer hours and be used more easily as collateral. It is part of a wider trend called real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, which also covers bonds, funds and Treasuries.
Oldenburg said supporting tokenized equities fits the firm’s strategy of “raising, allocating, and managing capital onchain while helping clients navigate a hybrid world” [1].
The rest of the build-out
- Wallets: The Block reports the bank is developing its own wallet infrastructure “that is not non-custodial but designed to be abstracted away from users” [1]. In plain terms, Morgan Stanley would hold the keys, and clients would not have to manage crypto wallets themselves.
- Digital Asset Lab: a recently set-up unit to test the blockchain and crypto technology needed for new products, rather than the products themselves [1].
- Digital trust: the bank received conditional approval from the OCC (the US national bank regulator) earlier this year to set up a digital trust to custody or stake digital assets for clients [1].
A big market forecast, hers not the bank’s
Asked about predictions that the tokenized real-world asset market will reach $3 trillion to $10 trillion, Oldenburg said: “We’ll definitely be within that range without question” [1]. That is her comment in an interview, not a published Morgan Stanley forecast.
What is not known
- Whether Q1 2027 will hold; it is described as more realistic, not fixed.
- Which tokenized shares, from which issuers, the ATS would support.
- Which clients would get access.
Sources
- The Block (Danny Park), “Morgan Stanley expects to support tokenized equities in Q1 2027, digital asset strategy head says”, 12 October 2026, 06:10 EDT. https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-10-12-morgan-stanley-tokenized-equities-q1-2027-418256
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