Citi promises to launch bitcoin custody before the end of the year, parting with JPMorgan Chase's c

Citi: It is expected to launch Bitcoin custody services for institutional customers within the year and incorporate them into the new platform Custody+

Citi said it expects to officially launch Bitcoin custody services for institutional customers later this year, which will be integrated into the new platform Custody+. The promise replaces a vague statement made by a Citi executive in October 2025, when he said managed products would still need to be launched "in the next few quarters."

In October 2025, JPMorgan Chase told reporters that the custody business was "not under consideration," and the new term set by Citi this time further widened the gap between the two banks.

Citigroup announced on Tuesday that it will launch a Bitcoin escrow service before the end of the year, the first time the bank has attached a practical deadline to a plan that had previously been described in only vague terms. The commitment is included in the Custody+ platform, a comprehensive package of near-real-time and real-time custody tools that Citi has launched to accommodate asset managers and other institutional investors with faster settlement cycles. The following will provide a detailed description of what the platform contains and where Bitcoin sits in it.

Citi lowered its 12-month bitcoin price target to $82,000 and Ethereum price target to $2240, citing outflows of ETF funds, a slowing pace of U.S. regulation and broader cryptocurrency market pressures.

What actually adds to Custody+?

Custody+ divides its capabilities into three major segments: instant settlement and on-demand foreign exchange; real-time cash and AI-driven tax processing; and infrastructure built for different operating models-digital asset custody and white-label platform options for other institutions.

Citi cited internal performance data to support the release: More than 80% of the bank's total incident volume has been processed in real time, the processing time for voluntary corporate actions has been shortened by 92%, and 96% of voluntary U.S. incidents can be completed in two hours. Chris Cox, head of investor services at Citi, said the bank invests more than $2 billion annually in its platform strategy, focusing on speed, scale and availability. Amit Agarwal, Citi custody director, called Custody+"the result of years of investment in building infrastructure designed to match the speed of customer strategies."

Bitcoin is clearly listed as the starting point for the digital asset section. Citi said that once the Bitcoin escrow service is launched, other crypto assets are expected to be connected one after another.

From the "next few quarters" to a clear deadline

In October 2025, Biswarup Chatterjee, Citi's head of global partnerships and innovation, described the custody plan as still in the vision stage. "We hope to be able to enter the market with credible hosting solutions in the next few quarters," Chatterjee said at the time. It was a hope, not a plan with a specific date.

When JPMorgan Chase was asked the same question, the other party gave the opposite answer. Scott Lucas, head of global markets digital assets at the bank, cited risk appetite and regulatory exposure as reasons for not getting involved in the business. "Custody is not currently under consideration," Lucas said, although JPMorgan was exploring cryptocurrency trading and stablecoin-related products. Ten months later, Citi replaced its vague statement with a public promise linked to its online window.

During this period, some of the changes came from the regulatory level. The GENIUS Act-a federal stablecoin framework-signed into law in August 2025 provides banks with a clearer legal basis for building digital asset infrastructure, eliminating the ambiguity that previously kept some institutions on a wait-and-see attitude. It is within this window that Citi's timeline moves forward.

Bank Bitcoin Custody: Four Years from Pilot to Production

Based on the layout of four years ago

In June 2022, Citi chose Swiss financial technology company METACO to integrate its Harmonize platform into Citi's infrastructure, which is the first step towards digital asset custody. Four months later, in October 2022, Bank of New York Mellon became the first large U.S. bank to actually launch Bitcoin and Ethereum custody services.

Citi interprets the broader push from its own perspective. In a 2026 strategy note, the bank considered deposits and payments to be the cornerstone of its balance sheet and noted that "if value can be transferred instantaneously elsewhere, then it must also connect seamlessly with us." This is why Citi is building a custody and settlement infrastructure that covers both traditional and tokenized assets, rather than treating Bitcoin custody as a separate cryptocurrency bet.

Whether this moment can become a turning point for institutional Bitcoin custody in systemically important U.S. banks from pilot to normal depends on two points that Citi has not yet demonstrated: whether it can deliver on its 2026 window commitments within a similar timeline that has been delayed once from its 2025 forecast; and whether it can deliver a custody product that is credible enough for the size of the institution-rather than a limited pilot disguised as a formal launch. If any of these falls short, the term "later this year" is just another version of "the next few quarters."