Wall Street Giants Spy Opportunities Rising From FTX Ashes

Bank of New York Mellon Corp.traces its history back to 1784 and Alexander Hamilton. But even this venerable institution is finding the lure of the crypto world too strong to resist.

Despite all that’s gone wrong in the industry, with trillions in losses, spectacular bankruptcies, the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried — the world’s largest custodian bank and other financial giants are hoping to expand in crypto — not shrink.

Cryptocurrencies are a small part of the sprawling digital-asset universe they’re targeting, betting the “crypto winter” will help them do what they couldn’t quite pull off during the now-forgotten crypto ...