The global financial services company Citibank has joined hands with the digital asset custody provider METACO to start creating and testing digital asset custody services.
According to an announcement made by the baking giant, it will work with companies to work together in building a platform that enables clients to store and settle digital assets in a secure way.
The custodial platform Harmonize from METACO will be fully incorporated into Citibank’s current system. By doing this, the bank will increase its current ability to work with digital assets while also extending it across its global network and into emerging markets.
Notably, this collaboration is not fully focused on cryptocurrencies in general. Tokenized securities, such as tokenized securities and bonds, would be the primary focus of the pilot.
According to the press release, the technology advancements would be “integral” to Citi’s institutional customer strategy for digital assets.
The global Head of Securities Services at Citibank, Okan Pekin, said that the team is innovating and developing “new capabilities to support digital asset classes that are becoming increasingly relevant to our clients.”
A major step by Citibank
Citibank has been showing serious interest in the crypto sector. In November last year, as TheCoinRise reported, it decided to hire 100 people for its crypto team. The former CEO of the company, Vikram Pandit, also made statements on the sector by saying that the banks will begin crypto trading within the next three years.
The partnership, according to METACO CEO and Founder Adrien Treccani, is “a market-defining moment for institutional adoption of digital assets.”
For institutions governed by FINMA, BaFin, FCA, Banco de Espaa, and MAS, METACO has supported numerous deployments of its technological stack. Interestingly, with 63 markets represented, Citibank presently manages $27 trillion in assets.
Last year, several banking institutions started providing custody services for cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin), with the Boston-based Slate Street introducing such services for a number of the main cryptocurrencies in March.
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