In early 2026, the news caused a ripple in the crypto circle, far more complex than it appeared on the surface. Morgan Stanley officially submitted applications to regulators for multi-asset ETFs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana—another top Wall Street institution entering the market. But the story behind this goes much deeper than simply "big institutions are optimistic about crypto."

The custodians of trillions of dollars in assets are trying to integrate blockchain assets into the traditional financial system. What stands before them is not policy issues, but a technological gap. Custody, settlement, risk management, auditing, compliance monitoring—every aspect of financial infrastructure needs to be redesigned. This is not just a simple market expansion; it’s an infrastructure-level technological revolution brewing.

Looking at custody alone makes this clear. Traditional financial asset custody is straightforward: ownership is recorded in a centralized database, managed by banks or securities firms, and transfer is handled through closed networks like SWIFT. But crypto custody is entirely different—private keys represent ownership, transactions are validated by decentralized networks, and data is permanently recorded on a public ledger. The structure itself doesn’t match.

What Morgan Stanley and others need is far more than just adding a new account type. They require a comprehensive system that meets the strict compliance frameworks of traditional finance while also being compatible with blockchain’s technical features. This demand itself is driving the entire industry’s technological upgrade.