Citi Aims for Bitcoin Custody to go Live in 2026

Citi Investor Services aims to go live with digital asset custody this year, starting with bitcoin, as the bank modernizes its custody infrastructure to meet the demand for compressed settlement cycles, continuous markets and artificial intelligence-driven decision making.

Christopher Cox, Citi

Chris Cox, head of investor services at Citi, said in a media briefing on 18 August 2026 that clients in post-trade increasingly want an instant, always-on, frictionless and seamless experience. Therefore, Citi Investor Services has launched Custody+, a modular suite of near- and real-time solutions to meet always-on industry demand that responds to shorter settlement cycles, provides better and richer data, and infrastructure that can scale, adapt and integrate fiat and digital assets.

“Ultimately our clients expect their banking experiences, even in the post-trade space, to be similar with the experience they enjoy as consumers,” he added. “The experience we should be delivering should be as easy as upgrading your iPhone, which happens seamlessly overnight.”

Digital assets

The new capabilities of Custody+ includes custody of digital assets which operate on 24/7 near-instant settlement. Clients will be able to access traditional and crypto custody capabilities on one platform.