Morgan Stanley (MS) has filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlining the structure of the proposed Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, revealing that the trust plans to use Coinbase Custody (COIN) and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) to protect its bitcoin holdings, according to a filed Form S-1.
The two institutions will act as the trust’s bitcoin custodians, responsible for storing the digital assets and facilitating transfers related to share creations and redemptions.
The archive outlines a repository structure designed to reflect traditional institutional standards. Bitcoin will largely be stored in offline cold storage, where private keys remain disconnected from the Internet to reduce hacking risks. A portion of the assets may temporarily move to trading wallets during ETF creation or redemption activity. The trust notes that custody insurance exists but is shared across clients and may not cover all potential losses.
BNY Mellon will also play several additional roles within the ETF structure. The bank will act as fund administrator, transfer agent and cash custodian, handling accounting, shareholder registrations and cash flows associated with ETF transactions.
The ETF itself will be structured as a passive vehicle designed to track the price of bitcoin by holding the cryptocurrency directly rather than using derivatives or leverage.
The filing also states that the trust will calculate its net asset value using the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark 4PM New York Settlement Rate, which aggregates trading data from major spot exchanges to determine the daily reference price for bitcoin.
