Citi Plans to Make Bitcoin Fit for Banks

Citigroup is working on a new service that will let investors keep bitcoin in the same kind of secure account they use for stocks and bonds. The idea is to make the digital currency feel as safe and easy to manage as any other asset. The bank’s chief of digital‑asset custody said the new offering will use top‑grade key protection and a wallet system that works like traditional banking. Clients would not have to learn how to hold wallets or manage private keys; they could simply tell Citi what they want and let the bank handle all the technical steps. One of the reasons for this move is clear demand from Citi’s customers. Many investors want exposure to bitcoin but do not want the hassle of dealing with wallets or one‑time addresses. They also hope to combine crypto holdings with other investments for better risk management. Citi plans to create a single master account that can hold U. S. Treasury bills, foreign bonds, tokenized money‑market funds and bitcoin all together. This structure would make it easier to use one asset as collateral for another, whether the other is a traditional security or a crypto token.Other big banks are following a similar path. Morgan Stanley, for example, is looking at exchange‑traded products for bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, and it is adding crypto trading to its online platform. These institutions want to build their own technology instead of renting it from outside providers. The bank has already built private blockchains for internal use and is now expanding to public networks as regulations improve. A current project, called Citi Token Services for cash, lets the bank move money around 24/7 using blockchain. This capability is crucial as investors increasingly demand round‑the‑clock access to assets like bitcoin. The New York Stock Exchange announced plans for a 24/7 trading venue that will use blockchain to trade tokenized stocks and ETFs. Citi’s effort is part of a broader industry trend toward integrating digital assets into everyday banking.