Citi Is Bringing Bitcoin Into Wall Street’s Traditional Custody Infrastructure

Citi is preparing to launch institutional digital asset custody later this year, starting with Bitcoin. The move could mark another major step in bringing crypto deeper into Wall Street’s existing financial infrastructure.

The announcement comes as Citi Investor Services launches Custody+, a new suite of near- and real-time custody solutions built for markets moving toward faster settlement, continuous trading and increasingly automated operations.

Custody+ brings together several services under one platform, including real-time asset servicing, settlement, FX, cash and liquidity management, AI-powered market intelligence and data connectivity.

At the center of the rollout is Citi’s patented Single Event Processing (SEP) technology.

Following its U.S. rollout, Citi says processing times for voluntary corporate actions have fallen by up to 92%. Meanwhile, 96% of U.S. voluntary events are now processed in under two hours, with more than 80% of Citi’s total event volume processed in real time.

The message is straightforward: Citi wants institutional investors to operate with less delay, greater transparency and better control.

The biggest development for the crypto industry is Citi’s planned digital asset custody service.

The bank expects to go live later this year, beginning with Bitcoin. Importantly, Citi does not plan to treat digital assets as an entirely separate custody business.

Instead, the service will be built on Citi’s common digital asset architecture, allowing institutional clients to access traditional securities custody and crypto custody within the same framework.

That could make it easier for asset managers and other institutions to manage digital assets alongside traditional holdings.

Citi is also expanding its broader digital asset infrastructure through Citi Token Services, which enables the near-instant movement of tokenized deposits on a 24/7 basis across select markets.

Citi’s strategy reflects a larger shift taking place across Wall Street.

Banks are increasingly moving beyond simply offering crypto-related products. They are building the infrastructure needed to connect Bitcoin, tokenized assets, traditional securities and real-time payments within the same institutional ecosystem.

That could lower some of the operational barriers that have historically made digital assets more difficult for large financial institutions to manage.

Citi isn’t simply adding Bitcoin custody to its product lineup. It is building an infrastructure where Bitcoin can sit alongside traditional assets — another sign that digital assets are becoming part of the institutional financial system.