Citigroup, the leading global bank, has partnered with Metaco, a crypto infrastructure based in Switzerland, for a digital asset custody platform.
According to the Citigroup security team, the bank will explore the capability of the custody platform on tokenized securities like blockchain-based bonds and stocks.
With over $27 trillion of assets in custody, Citigroup has decided to partner with Metaco to help it develop its digital assets custody platform instead of building its own.
Citigroup joins other traditional finance firms
Citigroup is not the only traditional financial company to partner with Metaco for the services of digital assets as others like Union Bank of the Philippines, Standard Chartered, DBS Bank, and BBVA have already done so in recent years.
It’s important to note that Metaco is backed up by high-profile investors like Swiss bank Zurcher Kantonalbank, Swiss Post, Standard Chartered Bank’s SC Ventures, and Swisscom, raising a total of $21 million to date.
Integrating the Metaco infrastructure platform
Citigroup’s new partnership is aimed at integrating the Metaco infrastructure platform, Harmonize, into its infrastructure. Harmonize helps to connect financial and non-financial organizations into the decentralized finance world to offer tools for crypto custody, tokenization, staking, and trading.
In a statement, the Global Head of Securities at Citi, Okan Pekin said:
“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.”
Recently, Citigroup has been supporting its presence in the crypto world by offering Bitcoin trade, besides, the bank had also announced that it’s planning to hire 100 people for the division of its digital assets to support its clients.
Metaco CEO and Founder, Adrien Treccani said:
“We are pleased to team up with Citi, one of the largest securities services firms, to support them in their vision to bridge digital and traditional assets. This initiative is a market-defining moment for institutional adoption of digital assets.”
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