Citigroup (C) plans to launch institutional Bitcoin custody services later this year, part of a broader effort to integrate the digital asset into the bank’s traditional financial infrastructure.
Nisha Surendran, Citi’s head of digital asset custody product building, described the move as an effort to “bankify Bitcoin” in a speech at the World Strategy Forum on Thursday.
The first is institutional grade key management and wallet infrastructure. However, Surendran said the goal is broader: to bring Bitcoin into the same custody, reporting and control framework that customers already use for traditional assets.
Announcing the plans at the World Strategy Forum 2026, Surendran said: “We will provide clients with a single service model covering cryptocurrencies, securities and currencies.” Bitcoin positions will flow into the same reporting channels and tax workflows as stocks and bonds, she said.
She added that customers will be able to direct transactions via SWIFT, API or user interface. “From a client’s perspective, all they should care about is them guiding us. We handle all the clearing and settlement complexities, and then we do the reporting.”
Customer needs
One of the reasons Citi moved to bankable Bitcoin was customer demand.
Surendran said Citi had surveyed its customers, adding that they “didn’t want to deal with wallets, keys and disposable addresses.” Instead, they want exposure to Bitcoin within the familiar banking system. Surendran said Citi also wants to enable its clients to trade on margin across cryptocurrencies and traditional assets.
She described a future account structure in which multiple asset types sit under a master custodial or custodial account, including U.S. Treasuries, foreign bonds, tokenized money market funds and Bitcoin.
“All of these assets can be accessed within the same account structure, which makes it easier to cross-margin using them,” she said, including the possibility of using crypto assets on traditional exchanges or broker-dealers, or vice versa. Citi intends to build the infrastructure to support this, she said.
It’s no surprise that banking giants are making further inroads into the digital asset space. Institutional investors have been seeking investment in the industry from traditional financial institutions for years. BlackRock, which initially offered exchange-traded funds to help more investors gain access to investments, has expanded to numerous banks and financial institutions that continue to integrate their traditional financial services into the digital asset space.
For example, Morgan Stanley, which manages about $8 trillion in assets, recently applied for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products and is exploring wallet technology on its wealth platform. It is also launching spot cryptocurrency trading on the E*TRADE platform and evaluating lending and yield opportunities related to digital assets.
“We need to build this in-house. We can’t just rent technology,” said Amy Golenberg, the banking giant’s recently appointed head of digital assets, speaking at a Strategy World event ahead of Surendran.
Create a 24/7 market
Citi connects more than 220 payment and settlement networks around the world, and as regulations became clearer and customer demand increased, it also began using private permissioned blockchains and then expanded to public networks. This is similar to what another banking giant, JPMorgan Chase, did with its JPM Coin.
One practical use case is the Citi Cash Token Service, a 24/7 blockchain-based network for moving funds within Citi’s global systems. “As we move into the world of 24/7 assets like Bitcoin, we definitely need 24/7 USD or 24/7 digital currencies,” she said, adding that Citi’s internal systems were being adapted to provide around-the-clock support.
24/7 markets are also something institutional clients have been asking of traditional financial institutions. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said last month it plans to launch a blockchain-based, round-the-clock trading venue for tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds later this year.
Nasdaq, the NYSE’s main U.S. rival, revealed in December that it planned to facilitate near-round-the-clock trading of stocks and exchange-traded products (ETPs) to adapt to the increasingly globalized nature of financial markets and investor behavior.
