Citigroup, one of Wall Street’s biggest banks, plans to launch institutional digital asset custody later this year, starting with Bitcoin. The service will be part of its new Custody+ platform, which brings traditional securities and digital assets into a common custody framework. Citi says the service is being developed in response to growing institutional demand for secure digital asset infrastructure. Clients will eventually be able to manage Bitcoin alongside traditional assets such as equities and bonds through the same custody setup.
Source: citigroup.com
Citi introduced Custody+ as a broader set of custody and asset-servicing solutions designed for financial markets that are becoming faster and increasingly digital. The platform includes real-time settlement, cash and liquidity management, foreign exchange services and AI-powered market intelligence.
The bank has also completed the rollout of its Single Event Processing technology in the United States. Citi says the technology is designed to make the processing of financial transactions and corporate actions faster and more efficient.
For the crypto industry, however, the most significant part of the announcement is the planned Bitcoin custody service. Citi expects to go live with digital asset custody later in 2026, beginning with Bitcoin. The service will use the bank’s existing digital asset architecture and is intended to provide a one-stop experience for institutional clients.
This means large investors will not necessarily need separate systems for their traditional and digital assets. Instead, Bitcoin custody, reporting, tax processes and controls can be brought into the same broad framework used for conventional investments.
The service is aimed at institutional investors such as asset managers that may prefer a regulated banking infrastructure rather than managing cryptocurrency private keys themselves. That could make Bitcoin more accessible to institutions that have been cautious about entering the digital asset market because of custody and operational concerns.
Citi is also expanding its work in tokenized finance. Through Citi Token Services, the bank already supports near-instant movement of tokenized deposits around the clock in selected markets.
The latest move shows how traditional banks are becoming more directly involved in digital assets. Rather than treating crypto as a separate business, Citi is increasingly looking at ways to connect it with the financial infrastructure institutions already use.
The bank’s decision to begin with Bitcoin is also notable. As institutional interest in the asset continues to grow, secure and regulated custody is becoming an increasingly important part of the market.
For Citi, the launch of Bitcoin custody could therefore be more than a new service. It could be another step towards bringing digital assets into the same financial infrastructure used by mainstream institutional investors.
JUST IN: $2.8 trillion Citi to launch Bitcoin custody for institutional clients. pic.twitter.com/XVBXYfmFcz
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) August 18, 2026
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