Morgan Stanley Hands Bitcoin Trust Custody to BNY and Coinbase

The dual-custodian arrangement mirrors the institutional standards used across other large asset managers entering the spot Bitcoin ETF space.

Bitcoin News

Morgan Stanley has

an amended registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, a proposed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund that would hold Bitcoin directly rather than gain exposure through derivatives or leverage. The filing names Coinbase Custody Trust Company and BNY as the fund's Bitcoin custodians, responsible for safeguarding digital assets and handling transfers tied to share creations and redemptions.

BNY would take on a broader set of responsibilities within the fund structure, serving simultaneously as administrator, transfer agent, and cash custodian, covering accounting, shareholder records, and cash management. The dual-custodian arrangement mirrors the institutional standards used across other large asset managers entering the spot

ETF space.

Most of the trust's

holdings would be stored in offline cold-storage vaults, keeping private keys disconnected from the internet to reduce exposure to cyber threats. A portion of assets may move to trading wallets during share creation or redemption periods, when authorized participants exchange cash for Bitcoin or redeem shares for the underlying asset. The filing notes that custody insurance is maintained but shared across multiple clients and may not cover all potential losses.