Citi is preparing to launch Custody+, its institutional bitcoin custody platform slated for late 2026, designed to bring digital assets under the same infrastructure as traditional securities.
🔑 Key takeaways
- Custody+ will manage bitcoin alongside stocks, bonds and money market funds in a single account
- Citi operates in 63 countries and manages approximately $30 trillion in client assets
- Cross-margining between Treasuries, bonds and bitcoin sits at the core of the framework
- The platform relies on CIDAP, Citi’s proprietary enterprise blockchain infrastructure
- Bitcoin ETFs and the Fed’s regulatory easing are accelerating institutional adoption
Custody+: bitcoin in the same vault as traditional assets
Unveiled by Nisha Surendran, head of digital asset custody development at Citi, at the World Strategy Forum in February 2026, Custody+ aims to « make bitcoin bankable. » The objective is to align custody, reporting and control standards for bitcoin with those already applied to securities and money market products.
In practice, institutional clients will be able to hold bitcoin alongside stocks, bonds and money market funds within a single custody account. Wallets, private keys and one-time deposit addresses will no longer be the client’s responsibility — Citi will handle them operationally, as it already does for traditional securities. Transactions can be initiated via SWIFT, APIs or dedicated user interfaces, and position reporting will flow through the same tax channels as equities and bonds.
« Clients won’t have to manage wallets, private keys or one-time addresses themselves — we want to make bitcoin bankable. »
Nisha Surendran, Head of Digital Asset Custody Development, Citi
At the heart of the framework sits cross-margining — the ability to use multiple asset classes simultaneously as collateral within a single master custody account. Eventually, US Treasuries, foreign bonds, tokenized money market funds and bitcoin will become interchangeable for hedging operations.
CIDAP: Citi’s enterprise blockchain architecture
Ryan Marsh, head of innovation and strategic partnerships at Citi Issuer Services and Investor Services, detailed the technological foundations of this strategy: the CIDAP platform (Citi Digital Asset Platform). This enterprise infrastructure encompasses all of the bank’s blockchain and digital asset technologies.
- An internal blockchain dedicated to the bank’s operations
- Connectivity to major external blockchains
- Tokenization capabilities (conversion of real-world assets into digital tokens)
- Integrated custody services
- A set of specialized microservices (modular software components)
The architecture was designed around a pooling principle: Citi builds the bridge between traditional applications and the blockchain only once, which then serves all use cases. The platform already supports real-time asset servicing and 24-hour securities movement, capabilities previously reserved for traditional markets. Ryan Marsh stressed that Citi has a structural advantage as a major sub-custodian with licenses in 63 countries, having already absorbed the complexity of traditional infrastructure through its integration.
Strategic partnerships: SDX, Coinbase, Euroclear and Swift
The development of Custody+ comes alongside a series of structuring partnerships that reflect Citi’s incremental approach to the digital asset ecosystem.
SDX: tokenization of pre-IPO shares
In May 2026, Citi partnered with SDX, the digital asset subsidiary of Swiss group SIX. The goal: tokenize, settle and custody late-stage pre-IPO shares for institutional and eligible investors. Marni McManus, country head and banking lead for Switzerland, Monaco and Liechtenstein, called private markets a « major and growing opportunity » while underscoring the need to « simplify and digitize an essentially manual, paper-based sector. »
Coinbase: fiat-crypto gateway
In October 2026, Citi and Coinbase announced a collaboration on digital asset payment capabilities for the bank’s institutional clients. The initial phase focuses on inbound and outbound fiat flows (traditional currencies such as USD or EUR), leveraging Coinbase’s on/off-ramps as a bridge between traditional and digital ecosystems. Biswarup Chatterjee, global head of partnerships and innovation at Citi, noted that the bank had been developing this service for two to three years and was exploring both in-house and third-party solutions depending on the asset and client segment.
Euroclear D-FMI and Swift: tokenization of deposits
In June 2026, Citi acted as dealer and issuing agent for Türkiye İş Bankası’s first fully digital note on the Euroclear D-FMI (Digital Financial Market Infrastructure) platform, accelerating issuance, settlement and communication processes. The bank also joined a Swift pilot in July 2026 for 24/7 cross-border payments using tokenized deposits, and is part of a tokenized deposit network via The Clearing House with a launch targeted for the first half of 2027.
Regulatory context and market outlook
Citi’s move comes against the backdrop of a markedly improving US regulatory environment. The Federal Reserve has withdrawn its directive requiring banks to notify regulators before engaging in digital asset activities, accompanied by similar measures from the FDIC and the OCC. These decisions effectively remove previous obstacles for banks offering crypto services.
On the price outlook, Citi analysts forecast in December 2025 that bitcoin could reach $143,000 by the end of 2026, with a bullish scenario above $189,000 and a bearish scenario around $78,500. At the time of the report, bitcoin traded around $88,000. It now trades below $67,000. Scott Chronert, US equity strategist at Citi, said in February 2026 that he expected bitcoin and Ethereum to continue their positive momentum through end-2026, with the two crypto assets serving as hedging opportunities for investors against equities.
Stablecoins: a parallel development track
Biswarup Chatterjee argued that stablecoins (cryptocurrencies pegged to a traditional currency) could be useful in regions where banking infrastructure is limited, easing cross-border payments as Citi’s clients expand into those markets. Bloomberg reported that Citi plans to join a consortium of nine European banks developing a euro-pegged stablecoin, including ING, UniCredit and DekaBank, with a launch slated for the second half of 2026.
Comparison table: how Citi stacks up against the competition
| Player | Type | Crypto custody offering | Geographic coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citi | Traditional bank | Custody+ (launch late 2026) | 63 countries |
| Coinbase | Crypto-native exchange | Coinbase Custody (live) | Global |
| SDX (SIX) | Central depositary | Tokenization of pre-IPO shares | Switzerland |
| NYSE | Stock exchange | Blockchain tokenized platform (2026) | United States |
| Nasdaq | Stock exchange | Continuous trading for stocks/ETFs | United States |
The Citi Securities Services Evolution 2025 survey, conducted among more than 500 market participants, indicates that players expect about 10% of trading volume to be digital within five years. Custodians emerge as the preferred gateway to digital assets and markets, with respondents citing custodians as their primary entry point. Separately, the NYSE announced in February 2026 plans to launch a 24/7 blockchain-based trading platform for tokenized stocks and ETFs, while Nasdaq had revealed in December 2025 plans to facilitate near-continuous trading for stocks and exchange-traded products.
Conclusion: towards a convergence of TradFi and digital assets
Citi’s launch of Custody+ marks a structural step in integrating bitcoin into the institutional financial infrastructure. By leveraging CIDAP and a network of targeted partnerships (SDX, Coinbase, Euroclear, Swift), the bank is betting on pooling custody frameworks to make bitcoin interchangeable with traditional assets for collateral management. The ambition goes beyond simple asset custody: Citi aims to become a custodian handling traditional assets, tokenized securities, tokenized forms of money and crypto, usable in a more efficient way for collateral management.
Two scenarios are emerging for 2026-2027. A gradual adoption path, where traditional banks launch custody offerings segmented by asset class, leveraging their existing licenses and compliance infrastructure. A consolidation scenario, where a few major custodians — including Citi, BNY, State Street and crypto-native players — capture the bulk of institutional demand by offering unified frameworks. The regulatory evolution in the United States and the maturity of Bitcoin ETFs suggest the first scenario is the most likely in the short term, with progressive consolidation as cross-margining requirements become widespread.
Sources
- The Block — Citi bitcoin custody plans
- Markets Media — Citi to launch crypto custody
- Bitcoin Magazine — Citi to integrate bitcoin with finance
- Yahoo Finance — Citi plans crypto custody launch
- FXStreet — Citigroup crypto custody 2026
- CoinDesk — Citi and Morgan Stanley expand crypto efforts
This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice. Do your own research (DYOR) before making any decision.
