Citigroup, one of the largest U.S. banks, which boasts assets under management (AuM) of around $2.5 trillion, is reportedly looking to offer crypto custody services. This comes amid plans also to issue its stablecoin, thanks to regulatory clarity under the Donald Trump administration.
Citigroup Explores Offering Crypto Custody Services
According to a Reuters report, a top executive at the bank confirmed that they are exploring providing stablecoin custody and other services. Biswarup Chatterjee, the bank’s global head of partnerships and innovation for the services division, said that providing custody services for high-quality assets backing stablecoins is the first option they are looking at.
Furthermore, Citigroup is also exploring custody services for crypto ETFs, including the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. The bank is looking to take on a similar role, which top crypto exchange Coinbase currently offers to about 80% of the existing U.S. crypto ETFs.
Chatterjee noted that the largest Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s IBIT, currently boasts over $90 billion in assets under management. In line with this, he remarked that there needs to be a custody of an equivalent amount of digital currency to support these ETFs.
This development with Citigroup again underscores the growing interest in the crypto space among traditional finance (TradFi) giants. As Coingape reported, JPMorgan and PNC Bank last month struck deals with Coinbase to provide crypto services to their customers. Meanwhile, JPMorgan plans to offer crypto-backed loans.
Plans To Integrate Stablecoins
According to the report, Citigroup is also exploring using stablecoins to process payments faster, considering that the traditional banking rails take several days. CoinGape had earlier reported that the bank was considering issuing its stablecoin, just like JPMorgan and Bank of America.
It is worth noting that the banking giant already offers tokenized U.S. dollar payments that allow easy transfer of the currency between accounts globally, using the blockchain network. Chatterjee revealed that they are developing services that enable clients to send stablecoins between accounts or convert them to fiat to make instant payments.
Meanwhile, the Citigroup executive group said that in providing crypto custody services, they need to ensure that these crypto assets, before their acquisition, were used for legitimate purposes. They also intend to strengthen cyber and operational security to prevent theft and ensure safekeeping.
Some banking giants also provide crypto custody services for stablecoins. Ripple last month secured a partnership with BNY Mellon for the bank to custody the dollar reserves for its RLUSD stablecoin.
Boluwatife Adeyemi
Boluwatife Adeyemi is a well-experienced crypto news writer and editor who has covered topics that cut across several niches. His speed and alacrity in covering breaking updates are second to none. He has a knack for simplifying the most technical concepts and making them easy for crypto newbies to understand.
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