Citi Eyes 2026 Crypto Custody Launch After Years of Quiet Development: CNBC

Citi (C) plans to connection crypto custody services successful 2026, enabling the slope to clasp autochthonal integer assets similar bitcoin and ether connected behalf of clients, according to a study by CNBC.

The determination marks different measurement by the Wall Street slope into the integer plus space. Biswarup Chatterjee, Citi’s planetary caput of partnerships and innovation for services, said the custody solution has been successful improvement for 2 to 3 years.

“We person assorted kinds of explorations,” Chatterjee told CNBC. “We’re hoping that successful the adjacent fewer quarters, we tin travel to marketplace with a credible custody solution that we tin connection to our plus managers and different clients.”

The custody program would springiness organization clients a regulated mode to store crypto, a portion of infrastructure galore accepted investors presumption arsenic indispensable for vulnerability to the sector.

Chatterjee said Citi is pursuing a hybrid approach, processing immoderate custody tools internally portion besides exploring extracurricular partnerships.

“We whitethorn person definite solutions that are wholly designed and built in-house … whereas we whitethorn usage a third-party, lightweight, nimble solution for different kinds of assets,” helium said. “We’re not presently ruling retired anything.”

The custody offering would articulation a increasing portfolio of integer plus experiments astatine Citi. During the bank’s second-quarter net telephone successful July, CEO Jane Fraser said Citi is besides exploring a stablecoin issuance, though she noted that tokenized deposits are a much contiguous focus.

Last week, Citi Ventures invested successful BVNK, a stablecoin payments startup, alongside Visa. That woody followed earlier experiments successful blockchain-based commercialized concern and cross-border payments.

If launched, Citi’s custody work would spot the slope among a tiny but increasing radical of accepted fiscal institutions entering the crypto backmost office.