Citi Moves to Make Bitcoin Bankable as Wall Street Builds Native Crypto Infrastructure

citi plans to launch institutional bitcoin custody later this year as part of a broader push to bring bitcoin into the bank’s traditional custody, reporting and control frameworks. The move aims to let institutional clients hold bitcoin alongside stocks, bonds and tokenized cash under familiar compliance, tax and settlement processes—an integration that could change how large investors treat crypto exposure.

How Citi plans to make Bitcoin bankable

The coverage shows the initiative begins with institutional-grade key management and wallet infrastructure designed to plug into existing banking operations. Bitcoin positions are expected to flow into the same reporting channels and tax workflows used for equities and bonds, so clients can use a single service model for crypto, securities and money. Clients will be able to instruct transactions using SWIFT messaging, application programming interfaces (APIs) or user interfaces while the bank handles clearing and settlement complexity.

citi intends to remove operational friction that institutional clients have cited: many do not want to manage wallets, private keys or one-time addresses. The planned service extends beyond custody to include custody account structures that aggregate multiple asset types—U. S. Treasuries, foreign bonds, tokenized money market funds and bitcoin—under a single master safekeeping account to facilitate cross-margining and operational consistency.

Citi and the $30 trillion asset management context

Coverage links this strategy to the bank’s broader asset management footprint, describing integration of bitcoin into a multi-trillion dollar asset system. The ambition is to make bitcoin function as a routine asset class within institutional workflows, not an operational outlier. That means extending tax, compliance and risk management tooling to cover bitcoin positions the same way they cover traditional instruments.

The bank has also been experimenting with private permissioned blockchains and a live token-based cash service that runs 24/7. The plan described in the material emphasizes internal development of core technology rather than solely relying on rented solutions, with public network expansion to come as regulation and client demand evolve.

Implications and what’s next for institutional crypto rails

The broader coverage places this move alongside parallel efforts by other major financial institutions that are building institutional crypto rails and wallet capabilities. For institutional investors that have avoided crypto because of operational and compliance complexity, a bank-grade custody option integrated into existing systems addresses many of the practical barriers to allocation.

• Operational impact: Single-account custody and unified reporting reduce reconciliation and tax workflow fragmentation.
• Market interoperability: Cross-margining across crypto and traditional assets could enable new collateral and margin strategies.
• Technology path: The bank intends to build core systems internally and connect to both permissioned and public networks as appropriate.

Timing remains a point of divergence in the coverage: some accounts describe a launch later this year, while other accounts indicate a rollout targeted later in 2026. Details may evolve as the bank finalizes capabilities and regulatory clarity continues to develop.

For institutional clients, the practical outcome is straightforward: if the effort proceeds as described, clients will be able to hold and operate bitcoin inside the same custody and reporting framework they already use for other asset classes, with the bank handling key management, settlement and tax reporting. That change could accelerate capital flows that prefer bank-managed infrastructure over standalone crypto custody solutions.

As the infrastructure is built out, market participants should watch for announcements about feature rollouts, interoperability with existing custody accounts, and the expansion from private chain experiments to broader public network support. Those steps will determine how quickly bitcoin becomes a routine, bank-native instrument for institutional portfolios.