Citibank & Swiss Company METACO to Develop Institutional Crypto Custody

Key Insights:

• Citibank will be leveraging METACO’s digital asset custody and orchestration platform.
• Citi Securities Services already has over $27 trillion worth of AUM.
• The global crypto market cap is stuck under $900 billion.

The growth of the crypto market has been significantly successful, but it is yet to reach the mainstream audience entirely. Citibank is ensuring that happens using its reach, and the most recent partnership is another step in that direction.

Citibank X METACO

The global bank announced in a press release its partnership with the Switzerland-based technology company METACO to develop Institutional Digital Asset Custody potential for its users.

The seven-year-old Swiss company’s bank-grade digital asset custody and orchestration platform Harmonize will be integrated into Citi’s existing infrastructure. 

This will allow Citi to develop and pilot digital asset custody capabilities and also use its expansive custody network to enable clients to store and settle digital assets.

Commenting on this partnership, the Global Head of Securities Services 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.”

Citi Securities Services already has over $27 trillion worth of assets under its custody, administration, and trust. At the same time, METACO has been an important figure in several key implementations, including FINMA, BaFin, FCA, Banco de España, and MAS-regulated institutions.

The Crypto Market Takes a Dip

While the partnership is beneficial to both companies, the decision came at a time when the entire crypto market has been in an iffy spot.

After losing more than $435 billion this month, the crypto market cap fell under $1 trillion and is currently at $879 billion.

Although mixed signals regarding recovery have been visible for a while now, the volatility visible on-chain makes it difficult for the market to stick to one path.

Thus when the market could reclaim the $1 trillion is unknown, but investors still happen to remain hopeful.