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The UK’s home for tokenised equity. Independent news, insight and resources for founders raising capital, investors deploying it, and the firms supporting both — as the regulation, infrastructure and opportunity converge.

Citi Confirms Bitcoin Custody Launch Under New Custody+ Platform

  • Writer: Shawn Jhanji
    Shawn Jhanji
  • Aug 19
  • 2 min read
If you are wondering which model wins the tokenisation infrastructure race, this week's confirmation from one of the world's largest custodian banks is a bigger signal than another platform launch. Citi Investor Services confirmed on 18 August that it will launch digital asset custody later this year, starting with bitcoin, as part of a new platform called Custody+. Custody+ brings together real time asset servicing, instant settlement, on demand FX, real time cash and liquidity management, digital asset custody and white label infrastructure that other institutions can plug into. Citi's Single Event Processing technology already processes more than 80 per cent of the bank's total asset servicing event volume in real time in the US, according to the bank. Starting with bitcoin lets Citi enter through the largest and most liquid digital asset market, aimed at institutional investors who already hold or are preparing to gain exposure. But the more consequential piece sits alongside it. Citi Token Services, the bank's existing tokenised deposit infrastructure, enables near instantaneous movement of tokenised commercial bank money, 24 hours a day, across select Citi markets. Combined with Custody+, Citi is building a single integrated platform spanning traditional assets, digital assets and tokenised bank money, rather than a bolt on crypto custody product sitting apart from everything else a client already uses. That integration choice echoes an approach the tokenisation infrastructure race has been converging on all year. This publication has tracked Securitize's move into regulated custody as a landmark moment for the sector. Citi's answer, coming from a global systemically important bank with existing custody relationships across institutional finance, tests the same thesis from the opposite direction, using its incumbent balance sheet and client base rather than a crypto native platform's technology stack. For UK platforms and law firms advising tokenisation clients, the read across matters. Institutions are telling every vendor and every bank the same thing: they do not want a separate, isolated platform for digital assets, they want digital assets folded into the infrastructure, controls and relationships they already run through. Whichever custody model wins, bank led or platform led, delivering that integration first is likely to set the default institutions build around, in the UK as much as the US.

If you are wondering which model wins the tokenisation infrastructure race, this week's confirmation from one of the world's largest custodian banks is a bigger signal than another platform launch.


Citi Investor Services confirmed on 18 August that it will launch digital asset custody later this year, starting with bitcoin, as part of a new platform called Custody+. Custody+ brings together real time asset servicing, instant settlement, on demand FX, real time cash and liquidity management, digital asset custody and white label infrastructure that other institutions can plug into. Citi's Single Event Processing technology already processes more than 80 per cent of the bank's total asset servicing event volume in real time in the US, according to the bank.


Starting with bitcoin lets Citi enter through the largest and most liquid digital asset market, aimed at institutional investors who already hold or are preparing to gain exposure. But the more consequential piece sits alongside it. Citi Token Services, the bank's existing tokenised deposit infrastructure, enables near instantaneous movement of tokenised commercial bank money, 24 hours a day, across select Citi markets. Combined with Custody+, Citi is building a single integrated platform spanning traditional assets, digital assets and tokenised bank money, rather than a bolt on crypto custody product sitting apart from everything else a client already uses.


That integration choice echoes an approach the tokenisation infrastructure race has been converging on all year. This publication has tracked Securitize's move into regulated custody as a landmark moment for the sector. Citi's answer, coming from a global systemically important bank with existing custody relationships across institutional finance, tests the same thesis from the opposite direction, using its incumbent balance sheet and client base rather than a crypto native platform's technology stack.


For UK platforms and law firms advising tokenisation clients, the read across matters. Institutions are telling every vendor and every bank the same thing: they do not want a separate, isolated platform for digital assets, they want digital assets folded into the infrastructure, controls and relationships they already run through.


Whichever custody model wins, bank led or platform led, delivering that integration first is likely to set the default institutions build around, in the UK as much as the US.


Citi has been building toward this for months. In January the bank said it was working with Intercontinental Exchange to support tokenised deposits across ICE clearinghouses, and in July it joined a Swift pilot on tokenised deposits for round the clock cross border payments. Custody+ is the point where those threads, and its digital asset ambitions, come together into one client facing platform.


Key Takeaways


  • Citi confirmed on 18 August it will launch bitcoin custody later this year under a new Custody+ platform.

  • Custody+ combines real time asset servicing, instant settlement, liquidity management and digital asset custody with white label infrastructure for other institutions.

  • Citi Token Services already moves tokenised bank deposits 24 hours a day across select markets, and will sit alongside the new custody offering.

  • The strategy signals that institutions want digital assets integrated into existing infrastructure and relationships, not a standalone platform.

  • The move puts a global systemically important bank in direct competition with dedicated tokenisation custody platforms for the same institutional client base.


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