Morgan Stanley Seeks Crypto Talent to Build DeFi and Tokenization Infrastructure

Morgan Stanley, the $9 trillion banking giant, is aggressively advancing its crypto infrastructure capabilities in DeFi and real-world assets tokenization.

The move aligns with a broader wave of traditional financial institutions seeking skilled staff to tap into the US’s current pro-crypto posture.

Morgan Stanley Ramps up DeFi and Tokenization Push

According to a job posting on LinkedIn, the Wall Street giant is seeking a senior-level engineer to direct its blockchain architecture.

Notably, the job description explicitly mentions “decentralized finance (DeFi)” alongside tokenization as a core focus area.

These two sectors have emerged as the fastest-growing verticals within the crypto economy. Data from analytics platform DeFiLlama indicates that DeFi protocols and real-world asset tokenization projects now command more than $100 billion in combined total value locked (TVL).

To capitalize on this growth, the successful candidate will be tasked with building “scalable, secure, and regulatory-compliant solutions.” These systems would be designed to bridge the gap between traditional banking requirements and the emerging digital asset industries.

The posting requires proficiency in four distinct blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Hyperledger, and Canton.

This combination suggests a tiered strategy using Ethereum and Polygon to provide public network liquidity and Layer-2 scaling efficiency.

Conversely, the firm appears set to deploy Hyperledger and Canton for institutional-grade, privacy-preserving permissioned transactions.

This infrastructure build-out aligns with Morgan Stanley’s broader crypto-related roadmap.

The firm is preparing to launch a proprietary crypto trading service on its E*Trade platform in the first half of 2026. The new offering will support trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

The move mirrors aggressive expansion by traditional finance (TradFi) competitors. Asset management giant BlackRock and Fidelity have already begun interacting with these sectors to tokenize institutional funds.

At the same time, there has been a noticeable surge in blockchain-related vacancies at traditional financial giants like JPMorgan Chase.

This signals that the sector is transitioning from experimental pilot programs to the development of permanent, revenue-generating digital asset products.