Major financial institutions are embracing the digital asset market with custody and trading services.
JPMorgan is stepping up its commitment to the digital asset sector, as confirmed by Scott Lucas, the bank’s Global Head of Markets and Digital Assets, in an interview with CNBC. The company is currently focused on developing a platform that will allow its clients to trade digital assets.
However, the bank has clarified that direct custody is not part of its immediate strategy. According to Lucas, the custody issue remains outside the institution’s strategic priorities for now. Instead, the bank is evaluating which “appropriate custodians” to partner with.
The JPMD token and stablecoins
JPMorgan has already started experimenting with its own deposit token, called JPMD, which launched in a pilot phase on the Base blockchain in June. At the same time, the bank is closely monitoring the evolution of stablecoins, recognizing their potential to support new client services. Lucas highlighted that the overall strategy is still being defined, as the regulatory framework has only started to become clearer in recent months.
Citibank prepares custody launch
While JPMorgan proceeds cautiously on custody, Citibank has announced its plan to launch crypto custody services by 2026. Biswarup Chatterjee, Citi’s Global Head of Partnerships and Innovation for Services, revealed that the solution has been under internal development for two to three years.
Chatterjee stated the bank’s goal of introducing a “credible custody solution” to the market in the coming quarters, aimed at asset managers and other institutional clients.
Citibank’s strategy combines internal solution development with the evaluation of external partnerships. Chatterjee emphasized that the bank is exploring both fully in-house custody tools and solutions offered by specialized third parties.
In addition, the institution is exploring stablecoin issuance and continuing to invest in experiments involving blockchain-based trade finance and tokenized cross-border payments.
