Morgan Stanley, the $9 trillion banking giant, is actively evolving the capabilities of its crypto infrastructure in DeFi and the tokenization of real-world assets.
The move is in line with a broader wave of traditional financial institutions seeking skilled staff to take advantage of the US’s current pro-crypto posture.
Morgan Stanley ramps up DeFi and tokenization drive
According to job listings on LinkedIn, the Wall Street giant is seeking a senior-level engineer to lead its blockchain architecture.
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Notably, the job description explicitly lists “decentralized finance (DeFi)” as a core focus area, along with tokenization.
These two sectors have emerged as the fastest growing areas of the crypto economy. According to data from analytics platform DeFiLlama, the total amount of DeFi protocols and real-world asset tokenization projects currently exceeds $100 billion in total value locked (TVL).
To take advantage of this growth, successful candidates will be required to build “scalable, secure, and compliant solutions.” These systems will be designed to bridge the gap between traditional banking requirements and the emerging digital asset industry.
Posting requires proficiency in four different blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Hyperledger, and Canton.
This combination suggests a layered strategy that uses Ethereum and Polygon to provide the liquidity and Layer 2 scaling efficiency of public networks.
Conversely, the company appears to be introducing Hyperledger and Canton for institutional-level privacy protection permission transactions.
Building this infrastructure is in line with Morgan Stanley’s broader crypto roadmap.
The company is preparing to launch its own cryptocurrency trading service on the E*Trade platform in the first half of 2026. The new service will support trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
The move reflects aggressive expansion by traditional finance (TradFi) competitors. Asset management giants BlackRock and Fidelity have already started interacting with these sectors to tokenize institutional funds.
At the same time, traditional financial giants like JPMorgan Chase & Co. have seen a notable spike in blockchain-related job openings.
This signals that the sector is moving from experimental pilot programs to developing digital asset products that generate permanent revenue.
