Citi plans to roll out bank‑grade infrastructure that lets institutional clients hold and manage Bitcoin alongside traditional assets later this year. The move marks one of Wall Street’s clearest steps yet toward treating Bitcoin as a regular part of large‑scale custody and reporting systems.
How Citi Plans to “Make Bitcoin Bankable”
Nisha Surendran, who leads digital asset custody development at Citi, outlined the plan at Strategy World, an industry event hosted by Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy. She said Citi will start by launching core custody and safekeeping, institutional‑grade key management, and wallet infrastructure that plugs directly into the bank’s existing systems.
Under the model, Citi will hold clients’ native Bitcoin using the same risk controls, legal frameworks, and audit processes it applies to securities and money‑market instruments. Bitcoin positions will flow into existing tax and regulatory reporting channels, so institutions can see BTC next to equities and bonds in a single consolidated view.
The bank plans to route Bitcoin instructions through familiar channels, such as SWIFT messages and API connections, while hiding technical details, such as UTXOs and address management, from end users. Citi is still deciding how much of the stack it will build in‑house versus through technology partners, after spending more than three years on digital asset custody development.
Why Citi Is Moving on Bitcoin Now
Citigroup manages about $30 trillion in assets across its custody and securities services business, and many of those clients now hold or trade Bitcoin through ETFs and other vehicles. Surendran said the bank’s goal is to let those institutions “add Bitcoin to the platform they already use” instead of forcing them to juggle separate specialist providers.
The plan follows earlier comments from Citi executives, including Biswarup Chatterjee, who told CNBC the bank targeted a 2026 launch for crypto custody and had been testing infrastructure for two to three years. Citi’s broader digital assets strategy also includes tokenized deposits and blockchain‑based payment rails that run 24/7 between its own branches in New York, London, and Hong Kong.
Citi joins a small but growing group of global custodians that are willing to safeguard spot Bitcoin directly, rather than only servicing ETFs or futures. Analysts say the bank’s entry could make it easier for conservative asset managers and corporates to hold BTC under existing mandates, since they can keep using a familiar, highly regulated custodian.
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