Wall Street’s Bitcoin Custody War Heats Up As Citigroup Enters The Arena

Citigroup (C) announced on Tuesday it expects to launch digital asset custody later this year, starting with Bitcoin (BTC), folding the cryptocurrency into the same infrastructure it uses to protect traditional securities for institutional clients.

The service will be part of Custody+, a new suite of near- and real-time custody solutions the bank launched Tuesday. Citi described the offering as a “one-stop” experience, where clients will be able to access traditional and crypto custody in the same framework, rather than operating a separate operational stack for digital currencies.

Citi’s Custody business serves clients in over 100 markets globally, 62 of which are proprietary custody markets, giving any potential Bitcoin custody offering one of the broadest institutional distribution footprints among U.S. banks entering the space.

Real-Time Infrastructure

Custody+ is built on Citi's patented Single Event Processing technology, which the bank announced the completion of the U.S. rollout on Tuesday. “Citi’s Services business spends more than $2 billion each year on its platform strategy,” said Chris Cox, Head of Investor Services at Citi. Citi Investor Services Custody Business Head Amit Agarwal said that Custody+ was the result of a multi-year buildout to keep pace with clients’ strategies.