Stablecoins and ETF in full boom: Citigroup wants its share of the Crypto market

The fear of burning your wings on the crypto market slowly dissipates, but surely. Where some saw a terrain undermined by speculation, others like Citigroup see it as a giant field of experimentation. Boosted by clearer legislation, institutional investors are getting their hands on Bitcoin like others on real estate. Banks, they follow suit: custody of digital assets, ETF, payments in stablecoins … The movement is launched.

Stablecoins, ETF and asset guard: Citigroup muscle its game

Citigroup has never done in half measures. When she enters the crypto, she targets the spine: the guard. And not just any. First of all that of reservations that support stablecoins, backed by sure values such as US treasury bills or cash.

Biswarup Chatterjee, in charge of partnerships at Citi, summarizes: ” Provide child care for high quality assets that guarantee stablecoins is our first track ».

But Citi does not stop there. The bank also eyeing the Crypto Etf Guardthese financial products backed by bitcoin or ether. Blackrock, with its 88 to 90 billion dollars under management via Ibit, is leading. But so that these ETF hold the road, you have to keep the BTC somewhere.

For the moment, it is Coinbase which won the bet, but Citigroup intends to redistribute the cards.

And for those who think that Citi discovers the blockchain, think again. She is already working with six Digital Exchange in Switzerland, just to tokenize private market assets. His goal? That these titles become as fluid as a simple bank transfer.

Crypto and instant payments race: towards a new banking order?

Between the ETF and the Tokenization, Citigroup pushes its pawns on another front: payments. And not just any. Transfers in token dollars, available 24 hours a day between his hubs in New York, London and Hong Kong. A revolution when you know the slowness of the traditional banking system.

This project goes even further: allow its customers to instantly transfer stablecoins or convert them directly into dollars. What give wings to companies that are tired of waiting for several days for international regulations. And according to Chatterjee, discussions with customers are well advanced on these concrete uses.

US legislation also plays its role. The Genius Act, recently voted, requires that each stablecoin is guaranteed to 1: 1 by safe assets. For Citigroup, it's blessed bread: she has chests, licenses and expertise. And if the bank emits its own stablecoin, like JPMorgan with JPM Coin, it could quickly become essential.

This digital turn, assumed and prepared, placed Citi on a trajectory that shakes up giants in the crypto sector like Coinbase, but also Fintechs, which will have to count with this old Wall Street wolf.

What to remember from Citi's Crypto strategy:

• 250 billion dollars: this is the estimated volume of stablecoins in circulation, according to McKinsey. A windfall to be secured;
• 1.3 million BTC: held by US Bitcoin ETF, or 6.2 % of the total offer. Source: Bitbo;
• Over 80 % of Crypto ETF: currently guarded by Coinbase. Citi wants to challenge this domination;
• $ 5,000 billion by 2030: estimate of the tokenization market according to Citigroup;
• Blockchain 24/7 network: already active for payments in token dollars in Citi subsidiaries.

Citigroup is not the kind of bank to grab the pillars of traditional finance. She has already opened arms to the blockchain, ETF, artificial intelligence. But at a time when America is leaving the digital dollar, the giant has chosen its camp: no programmable central currency. The CBDC has been snubbed, a decision assumed as a declaration of independence in front of the panel.