Today Citi announced plans to become a custodian and tokenizer for Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). The bank aims to tokenize the equity of venture backed, late stage companies on the digital exchange, with plans to go live in the third quarter of 2025. The aim is to reach eligible private and institutional investors.
SDX consists of both a regulated DLT-based central securities depositary (CSD) and a marketplace, with Citi becoming a CSD member alongside several other Swiss and international banks. Standard Chartered joined in March. “This initiative will distinguish itself in the industry by using SDX’s regulated blockchain based technology to enable the efficient distribution of shares in mature international private companies, which are expected to generate strong investor interest,” said David Newns, Head of SDX.
A few years ago Forge Global, the marketplace for unicorn stocks, was expected to enter the tokenization space, but it didn’t happen. With some of the world’s biggest tech brands still being private, such as Stripe and Revolut, there is plenty of appetite. However, tokenization on its own won’t create demand. Hence, Citi and SDX are collaborating with Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum and Singapore’s SBI Digital Markets to help to drive demand from their client investors. SIX has a separate joint venture with SBI.
“Switzerland’s regulatory framework and SDX’s infrastructure allows Citi to bring a new solution to market using technology to solve for challenges in private markets for issuers and investors,” said Marni McManus, Citi Country Officer & Head of Banking for Switzerland, Monaco & Liechtenstein. “Private markets is a major and growing opportunity and our work with SDX promises to simplify and digitize what is essentially a manual and paper-driven industry today.”
SDX currently operates mainly on a permissioned blockchain under conventional regulations. Hence, it does not deal directly with private investors and always goes via brokers. To date most of its activities have been in digital bonds and cryptocurrencies. This partnership with Citi represents a significant step toward modernizing private market transactions, potentially creating new opportunities for liquidity and investment in late-stage private companies while maintaining regulatory compliance.
