Citi plans digital asset custody service launch with Bitcoin

Citigroup, one of the largest financial institutions on the planet, is preparing to roll out a digital asset custody service that includes Bitcoin. The service is expected to launch by 2026 as part of the bank’s broader Custody+ platform, bringing crypto into the same infrastructure that already holds more than $24 trillion in traditional assets. What Citi is actually building The custody service is being developed under Citi’s Integrated Digital Assets Platform, known internally as CIDAP. Nisha Surendran is leading the initiative, which aims to let institutional clients interact with digital assets using the same workflows they already use for stocks, bonds, and other traditional holdings. The key design choice is a no-wallet, no-private-key system. Clients won’t need to manage seed phrases or worry about the mechanics of blockchain custody. Citi handles that layer entirely, making Bitcoin what the bank describes as “bankable” within a regulated framework. Beyond pure custody, CIDAP is designed to support tokenization and blockchain connectivity. That means Citi isn’t just building a vault for digital assets. It’s building the plumbing to move tokenized versions of traditional ass...