VanEck Executive: Citi Originally Planned to Launch Institutional Bitcoin Custody Last Week, Possibly Delayed by Binance Hack

November 3 — Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, said Citi Wealth published a report titled "Broadening the Investable Universe: A Primer on Crypto ETFs," pitching spot BTC and ETH ETFs to eligible clients as a way to allocate digital assets alongside stocks and bonds through regulated brokerage accounts. In addition, Citi said on August 18 that its new Custody+ platform would begin holding bitcoin for institutional clients this year.

According to Sigel's tally, this would make Citi the sixth of the 29 global systemically important banks to have launched or announced institutional bitcoin custody, after BNY, Standard Chartered, Societe Generale, State Street and Deutsche Bank. BNY, Standard Chartered and SG-Forge have obtained licenses and serve institutional clients; Deutsche Bank says it will launch within weeks; JPMorgan said it is not currently offering custody. Sigel said last week's Binance hack may be one reason Citi has not announced a timeline, and that he heard the service was originally scheduled to go live last week.