Citigroup Exploring Stablecoin Custody

“Providing custody services for those high-quality assets backing stablecoins is the first option we are looking at,” Biswarup Chatterjee, global head of partnerships and innovation for Citigroup’s services division, said in an interview. Citi’s services business, which includes treasury, cash management, payments, and other services to large companies, remains a core unit for the bank, which has been undergoing a major restructuring. A Mackinzie Study estimates about $250 billion in stablecoins have been issued so far, but are mainly used to settle cryptocy trades. While Citigroup said last month it was considering issuing its own stablecoin, the bank has not previously discussed its broader digital asset plans.

Citi is also exploring custody services for digital assets that back crypto-related investment products. For example, many asset managers have launched ETFs tracking the spot price of bitcoin since the Securities and Exchange Commission authorized such products last year. The largest bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT.O) has around $90 billion in market capitalization. “There needs to be custody of the equivalent amount of digital cy to support these ETFs,” Chatterjee said.