Morgan Stanley CEO says cryptocurrencies ‘aren’t going away'

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said that his crypto doesn’t touch a large part of his firms business, but he doesn’t think the asset is going away.

“I don’t think crypto’s a fad, I don’t think it’s going away,” Gorman said on a call with analysts Thursday morning. “I don’t know what the value of bitcoin should or shouldn’t be, but these things aren’t going away and the blockchain technology supporting it is obviously very real and powerful.”

“It's just not a huge part of the business demand from our clients, and that may evolve, and we'll evolve with it," the CEO added. 

Morgan Stanley — which reported a net earning of $14.8 billion for the third quarter — showed particular interest in crypto this year. It’s $150 billion investment unit Counterpoint Global explored bitcoin in February of this year, and the firm purchased more than 28,000 shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust in June of this year.