Morgan Stanley executives state that the era of traditional 9-to-5 banking is coming to an end as markets transition to 24/7 trading and settlement:
- They expect tokenized assets to bring blockchain technology to mainstream investors before many buy cryptocurrencies directly.
- The bank is expanding its digital asset offerings with crypto trading on E*TRADE and new Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana ETFs.
The financial industry is moving towards a world where markets never close, payments settle in real time, and investors expect access to their funds around the clock:
Betsy Graseck, Morgan Stanley's global head of banks and diversified finance research, noted during a panel discussion that the shift to tokenized assets is about much more than cryptocurrencies:
“I phrase it as, look, this is the end of banker hours,” Graseck said:
Banks, exchanges, and custodians are investing in technology that allows assets to move 24 hours a day, seven days a week:
Morgan Stanley has steadily expanded its digital asset offerings over the past year:
Investor demand is no longer centered solely on Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies:
“If you do not modernize your rails to enable yourself to participate as flows shift to digital asset rails, you're not positioning yourself for growth,” she said:
She added that firms ignoring the trend risk falling behind:
