Citigroup Expands Access to Private Markets With Tokenized Depositary Receipts

Citigroup launched tokenized depositary receipts that are designed to broaden access to private markets.

The new Digital Depositary Receipts on private shares provide investors with direct access to private companies’ equity through a familiar investment structure and offer private companies access to liquidity through expanded investor outreach, the bank said in a Thursday (June 11) press release.

Citi is collaborating with SIX, a fully regulated digital central securities depositary, and will use that company’s blockchain infrastructure. The bank will serve as a custodian on the platform and will be responsible for the settlement and safekeeping of the tokenized depositary receipts, according to the release.

Citi is considering extending the offering across other financial market infrastructures and blockchain networks, per the release.

Bis Chatterjee, head of partnerships and innovation, services at Citi, said in the release that this new offering helps meet the need for diverse and trusted access points to private markets as those markets continue to grow.

“Our Digital Depositary Receipts product is designed to provide superior client service, safeguard assets and facilitate capital markets activity with the same rigor that underpins traditional financial markets,” Chatterjee said. “The interoperability of the product will further enable Citi to support a wider range of issuers and investors as digital asset market infrastructure continues to evolve.”

Deborah Querub, head of digital assets for Wealth at Citi, said in the release: “We’re focused on responsibly expanding access to new types of investment opportunities while preserving the structures, protections and experience our clients expect.”

The new solution’s first transaction was between Citi portfolio company Kaleido, which is an institutional tokenization and digital asset platform, and investors within its Wealth business, the release said.

Kaleido Founder and CEO Steve Cerveny said in the release that private companies like Kaleido are scaling faster than the structures for private market capital formation.

“Citi’s Digital Depositary Receipts allow us to explore new paths for growth while keeping the agility that makes private companies competitive, and that’s an advantage for founders planning long term,” Cerveny said.

PYMNTS reported June 4 that Citigroup is among the major commercial banks that plan to launch a tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027. The network will be operated by The Clearing House, the real-time payment company co-owned by the same banks.

Chatterjee told PYMNTS in an interview posted in April that executives in the banking sector are increasingly confident that tokenized deposits could become the preferred on-chain dollar for institutional and wholesale use.

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