Key Takeaways
- Citigroup launched tokenized depositary receipts for private shares via blockchain rails.
- Citi targets demand for firms like SpaceX as private markets stay closed longer.
- Citi plans U.S. expansion after foreign rollout and may add more blockchain networks.
Citigroup Courts Top Private Firms With New Blockchain Marketplace for Investors
Citigroup is moving further into tokenized finance with a new service that lets select clients trade private company shares through blockchain infrastructure.
The bank is building the venture for wealthy and institutional investors at a time when demand is rising for earlier access to high-growth private businesses, as evidenced by the SpaceX and Anthropic IPO plans.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Citi said it is already speaking with some of the world’s largest private companies about participating in the platform. The service is designed to place private-market exposure inside a familiar investment setting.
Artem Korenyuk, Citi’s global lead for digital assets enterprise alignment and services enablement, said the goal is to let clients hold private company exposure “right next to their Apple stock.”
For now, the product is available only to foreign investors. Citi plans to open it to U.S. investors later. The bank will charge transaction and maintenance-based fees, and said its infrastructure could also be used by other banks.
Tokenized Receipts Offer an Alternative to SPVs
The structure relies on authorized and tokenized depositary receipts. Depositary receipts are securities that allow investors to hold exposure to companies through a regulated instrument. In Citi’s model, those receipts are issued and custodied by the bank, then represented on a blockchain.
Citi says this approach offers a clearer alternative to special-purpose vehicles (SPVs), which are often used to access private companies but have drawn scrutiny over transparency and investor protections.
“With those, investors don’t know what they’re actually buying,” Korenyuk said. “This is a very clear alternative model.”
The blockchain supporting the venture is operated by Switzerland-based SIX. Citi said it may later extend the service to other blockchain networks.
The project also reflects a broader push by major banks to bring traditional assets and money movement onto blockchain rails. Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and other institutions are working on tokenized deposit systems, while tokenized money-market funds and securities platforms are gaining traction across Wall Street.
Citi’s initial trade involved wealth clients investing in Kaleido, an institutional tokenization and digital-asset platform. The bank said the launch required coordination across its five business lines, a sign of how seriously it is treating digital asset infrastructure.
The move follows Citigroup’s recent participation in a JPMorgan-backed consortium planning a tokenized deposit network as early as the first half of 2027. That project is expected to support around-the-clock settlement for large global clients.
For Citi, private shares are the next test. If the model works, tokenized depositary receipts could give investors a more transparent route into private markets while giving banks a new way to compete in the race to modernize capital markets.