Report: Citigroup Reviews Deal With Metaco to Develop Digital Asset Custody

Citigroup is reportedly reviewing its year-old partnership with Swiss digital asset custodian Metaco.

The bank has also been talking with other, similar companies, Bloomberg reported Friday (June 30), citing unnamed sources.

Reached by PYMNTS, a Citi spokesperson declined to comment on the report.

The review follows enterprise crypto company Ripple’s agreeing to acquire Metaco last month, but it is not known if the review was launched in response to that move, according to the Bloomberg report.

Citigroup partnered with Metaco in June 2022, saying it aimed to develop and pilot digital asset custody capabilities by combining Metaco’s technology and digital solutions with Citi’s custody network.

Metaco provides digital asset technology to financial institutions, and Citi said at the time that it intended to integrate the FinTech’s digital asset custody and orchestration platform into the bank’s infrastructure.

“We are witnessing the increasing digitization of traditional investment assets along with new native digital assets,” Okan Pekin, global head of securities services at Citi, said in a press release at the time. “We are innovating and developing new capabilities to support digital asset classes that are becoming increasingly relevant to our clients.”

Other banks have also been moving into crypto custody. For example, Bank of New York Mellon said in October that it is offering crypto custody services for clients and bringing digital assets into the fold alongside the trillions of dollars of traditional assets it warehouses for the country’s biggest money managers.

Ripple’s deal to acquire Metaco for $250 million was announced May 17, with Ripple saying the move will help it tap into an institutional crypto custody market that will grow to $10 trillion by 2023.

“Ripple and Metaco share strong crypto DNA, top-tier institutional customers, and a long history of working with regulated entities to create secure enterprise-grade solutions,” Ripple said at the time. “With this acquisition, Ripple will expand its enterprise offerings, providing customers with the technology to custody, issue and settle any type of tokenized asset.”

The company also said that Metaco will continue to operate as its own brand, led by founder and CEO Adrien Treccani, while gaining access to Ripple’s base of hundreds of clients and greater capital and resources.