Citibank Selects METACO, Swiss Firm, For Institutional Cryptocurrency Custody

Citibank C has partnered with METACO to use its technology to develop and lead virtual asset custody abilities.

What Happened: Citibank’s latest announcement appoints METACO, a Swiss cryptocurrency custody company, to enhance Citibank’s digital asset safeguarding abilities.

METACO’s Harmonise platform is expected to oversee the $27 trillion in assets Citibank controls.

As revealed by Citibank’s Securities Services team, this integration emphasises tokenized securities. In other words, assets, such as bonds and stock representations transacted via blockchain technology will be further safeguarded through this partnership.

Prior to Citibank, METACO facilitated institutional cryptocurrency custody for other banks, such as GazpromBank and BBVA.

Why It’s Important: METACO and Citibank’s partnership will allow Citi users to use the bank’s vast custodial network to safeguard, store and transact digital assets.

This upgrade to Citibank’s infrastructure comes in turbulent market conditions, with the current cryptocurrency market capitalization at $890 billion, below one-third of its all-time high.

“We are witnessing the increasing digitization of traditional investment assets along with new native digital assets. We are innovating and developing new capabilities to support digital asset classes that are becoming increasingly relevant to our clients," Okan Pekin, global head of securities services at Citibank, said in a statement.