Citigroup is rolling out a blockchain platform that lets wealthy and institutional clients trade Citi tokenized shares of private companies. The offering is initially available only to non-US investors and runs on the Swiss infrastructure SDX (SIX Digital Exchange).
Citigroup ranks among the largest global universal banks, with a presence in nearly 180 countries. Its core business further includes investment banking, custody, and treasury services for institutional clients. Tokenization here means the digital representation of company shares on a blockchain. Ownership and transfer can therefore be settled without a traditional clearing house. SDX and Citi originally announced the collaboration in May 2025. The bank took on the roles of digital custodian and tokenization agent. SDX is also the first and only FINMA-licensed DLT-based central securities depository in Switzerland. The first verified investment transaction involved the digital firm Kaleido. However, Citi did not name specific private companies. Typical pre-IPO examples include SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI, which continue to await a public listing.
Citi tokenized shares: custody and settlement on the SDX platform
On the SDX platform, Citi acts as both custodian and tokenization agent. The bank thus handles tokenization, settlement, and custody of the assets. Additionally, it represents shares of private companies as digital tokens and manages their lifecycle throughout. The provider executed the first investment step through the digital firm Kaleido. As a result, legal and technical responsibility sits with a regulated financial institution. Moreover, this institution does not outsource the individual process steps to external service providers. This vertical integration is the core of what the bank markets as end-to-end servicing.
SDX, in turn, is a FINMA-licensed, DLT-based central securities depository. It is the first of its kind in Switzerland. The Swiss exchange operator SIX runs the underlying infrastructure. This regulatory framework structurally distinguishes the model from traditional special purpose vehicles, through which institutional pre-IPO access has often run so far. With such structures, investors hold a stake in an intermediary company rather than directly in the company. That can make valuation and transfer opaque. Citi therefore positions the tokenized variant as more transparent, because DLT documents ownership and transfer directly. For institutional buyers, that additionally reduces dependence on opaque secondary market structures.
For now, however, the offering remains limited to non-US investors. This sidesteps the regulatory complexity of US securities law. At the same time, the bank aims further: it hopes for adoption across all of Wall Street and thus for a standardization of tokenized private market shares. Such an industry standard would position Citi early as an infrastructure operator.
"As digital custodian and tokenization agent on the SDX platform, Citi will support global investors and issuers with end-to-end servicing." - Ryan Marsh, Citi
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Regulated model versus unilateral tokenization
Private companies are increasingly staying private longer. Prominent names such as SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI still await anticipated public listings. As a result, demand is growing for institutional access to private equity exposure ahead of an IPO. Republic initially announced tokens in 2025 that represent shares of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, with entry from 50 USD. Bernstein analysts subsequently described the trend in July 2025 as an "equity tokenization wave."
These early attempts, however, also illustrated the risk. Robinhood later offered tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX to European users, minted on Arbitrum. OpenAI then publicly distanced itself. Furthermore, the company clarified that it had neither authorized nor endorsed the tokens. This exposed the regulatory and reputational problem of tokenization without consent from the represented company. For institutional investors, this risk weighs heavily, because an unclear legal claim calls the value of a token investment into question.
Citi's approach addresses precisely this weakness. The bank is holding talks directly with large private companies about participation in the platform, even though it has not yet named specific names. Consequently, the institution positions itself as a regulated gatekeeper for pre-IPO access rather than as a workaround past the issuers. This authorization ultimately marks the qualitative difference from the earlier attempts. In addition, the bank's global reach across nearly 180 countries provides Citi with a distribution base that no pure crypto provider has.
Citi's own forecast and the JPMorgan consortium
Back in March 2023, Citi already described the tokenization of real-world assets as a "killer use case" for blockchain in its report "Money, Tokens, and Games." At the time, the bank forecast up to 4 trillion USD of tokenized securities by 2030. In June 2026, it updated this assessment. The base case now cites 5.5 trillion USD of tokenized assets by 2030, with 8.2 trillion USD in the bull case and 2.7 trillion USD in the bear case. The current market, by comparison, stands at around 17 billion USD. Even the cautious scenario therefore implies a substantial expansion. Regulated stablecoins are additionally expected to grow to 1.9 trillion USD by 2030, thereby providing the settlement infrastructure.
In parallel, Citi is part of a consortium led by JPMorgan that plans a joint tokenized deposit network. Further participants include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BNY, and HSBC. The Clearing House is to operate the network. Its launch is moreover scheduled for H1 2027 at the earliest, and the consortium has not yet selected a blockchain provider. The plan calls for real-time settlement around the clock as well as programmed treasury management for large global clients. Back in 2023, the bank likewise launched a pilot for cross-border deposit transfers with "Citi Token Services." This underscores its long-standing orientation toward this technology. While the SDX platform targets private market shares, the deposit network instead addresses the settlement layer. Both initiatives rely on the same tokenized infrastructure.
Notably, Citi acts at the same time as an infrastructure provider via SDX, as a consortium member at JPMorgan, and as an analyst with its own market forecast. Consequently, its self-interest in rapid tokenization adoption is firmly priced in.
