Key Takeaways
Citi unveiled Custody+ on August 18 and confirmed native digital asset custody will go live later this year, starting with Bitcoin.
Citi's securities services business supports custody clients in more than 100 markets and oversees roughly $30 trillion in client assets.
The move places Citi alongside BNY Mellon, U.S. Bank, State Street and Standard Chartered in a custody race that was empty two years ago.
Citigroup said it will begin holding Bitcoin directly for institutional clients later this year, folding the service into Custody+, a modular custody suite the bank unveiled on August 18 out of London.
The bank's Investor Services division said digital asset custody will go live "starting with the custody of Bitcoin." Citi's securities services business supports custody clients in more than 100 markets, 62 of them proprietary, and oversees roughly $30 trillion in client assets. At group level Citi reported $2.78 trillion in total assets at the end of the first quarter of 2026.
Why Citi Is Not Building a Separate Crypto Product
The structure matters more than the announcement. Citi is not launching a standalone wallet. Bitcoin will sit inside the same account structure, reporting stack and tax workflow the bank already uses for equities and bonds, built on what Citi calls its common digital asset architecture. That is the pitch to asset managers who currently split mandates between traditional custodians and crypto-native firms like Coinbase Custody and Anchorage Digital.
Citi is not first, and it is not pretending to be. BNY Mellon has run an institutional digital asset platform since receiving a SAB 121 variance in 2024. U.S. Bank resumed Bitcoin custody in September 2025 with NYDIG as sub-custodian. State Street has flagged a 2026 entry, and Standard Chartered moved to absorb its Zodia Custody unit in May.
The Regulatory Ground Shifted Under All of Them
The SEC rescinded SAB 121, the GENIUS Act passed, and the CLARITY Act advanced, removing most of the accounting and legal friction that kept large US banks out of native crypto custody through the previous cycle. WYDE reported the same convergence when DTCC ran its first live trades of tokenized securities and when the OCC cleared a conditional national trust bank charter for USD1.
Citi first flagged a 2026 target for crypto custody in an October 2025 interview with CNBC, when an executive said the offering had been in development for two to three years. The bank has not disclosed a launch date beyond later this year, a fee structure, or whether any sub-custodian will support the offering. Worth watching.
People Also Ask
When will Citi launch Bitcoin custody?
Citi says the service goes live later in 2026. It has not named a specific date.
What is Citi Custody+?
A modular custody suite announced August 18, 2026, spanning eight capabilities across speed and certainty, intelligence and control, and infrastructure for diverse operating models. Bitcoin custody sits in the third group.
Which banks already offer institutional Bitcoin custody?
BNY Mellon and U.S. Bank are live. State Street has flagged a 2026 entry and Standard Chartered operates through Zodia Custody.
How large is Citi's custody business?
Citi's securities services arm oversees roughly $30 trillion in client assets across more than 100 markets, 62 of them proprietary.