BeInCrypto 100 Institutional Awards Nomination: Citi for Leader in Digital Asset Adoption

Digital asset adoption inside global banks has moved past the pilot stage. The real question now is which institutions can connect blockchain infrastructure to the systems that already move money, settle trades, and support global commerce.

Citi is one of the banks doing that at scale. The firm is nominated for Leader in Digital Asset Adoption at the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards 2026.

Citi Digital Asset Adoption Snapshot

The nomination centers on the Citi Integrated Digital Assets Platform, or CIDAP, and the continued rollout of Citi Token Services across cash management, liquidity, trade finance, and tokenized asset workflows.

CIDAP is Citi’s internal bridge between traditional banking systems and blockchain networks. Citi describes it as a core pillar of its digital asset strategy, supporting use cases across payment services, capital markets, securities, custody, trade, and FX.

That matters because most institutional clients do not want a separate crypto operating model. They want blockchain-based settlement, tokenized deposits, and digital asset services to connect with the same systems they already use.

Moving Tokenized Deposits Into Global Banking

Citi Token Services is the clearest example of its digital asset adoption moving into production infrastructure.

The product uses blockchain and smart contracts to support tokenized deposits inside Citi’s global network. Citi first announced the creation and piloting of the service in 2023, saying it would upgrade core cash management and trade finance capabilities for institutional clients.

Citi Token Services for Cash enables clients to transfer liquidity between participating Citi branches on a 24/7 basis. Citi Token Services for Trade supports programmable transfers of tokenized deposits, with instant payments to service providers through smart contracts.

“Leveraging our digital proprietary global network, we’re enabling 24/7, near instant cross-border payments across the Citi network and our financial institution clients – helping corporates and financial institutions move millions of dollars in a matter of seconds,” said Debopama Sen, Head of Payments, Services

The cash product is especially important because it tackles one of the oldest problems in global banking: liquidity still gets trapped by cut-off times, settlement windows, and market hours. 

Citi’s 24/7 USD Clearing integration with Citi Token Services supports near-instant liquidity movement across Citi and non-Citi accounts in select markets.

Trade Finance Moves On-Chain

Citi’s adoption story also extends into trade finance.

In its original Citi Token Services pilot, Citi worked with Maersk and a canal authority on a digitized solution similar to bank guarantees and letters of credit. The pilot used tokenized deposits and smart contracts to provide instant payments to service providers. Citi said the process could reduce transaction processing times from days to minutes.

In 2026, Citi pushed that work further by testing tokenized Bills of Exchange.

Working with PwC and Solana, Citi completed an internal proof of concept that represented a bill of exchange as a token on blockchain. The test covered issuance, financing, distribution, and settlement in a simulated environment. Citi said the proof of concept used synthetic data and fictitious clients, but showed how a full trade finance lifecycle could be replicated on blockchain.

That is a practical development. Bills of exchange are still tied to paper-heavy and manual workflows. Tokenizing them could make ownership, financing, and repayment easier to track and settle. Citi’s own report says tokenization can reduce friction, improve real-time visibility, and support better risk management across the supply chain.

Tokenization Beyond Payments

Citi has also tested tokenization in private markets.

In 2024, Citi worked with Wellington Management and WisdomTree on a proof of concept for tokenized private funds. The test ran on the Avalanche Spruce institutional test subnet and explored how smart contracts could support new functions and operational efficiencies that are difficult to achieve with traditional private market infrastructure.

The test tokenized a Wellington-issued private equity fund and encoded distribution rules into the smart contract. 

Citi also tested smart-contract-based transfers, simulated identity credentials, and the use of a private fund token as collateral in an automated lending contract with DTCC Digital Assets.

A Bank-Scale Adoption Story

Citi’s nomination is not based on a single blockchain experiment. It reflects the bank’s effort to connect digital assets with core institutional banking.

The company has more than 200 years of operating history and does business in nearly 160 countries and jurisdictions. Its 2025 annual filing reported total assets of $2.657 trillion at year-end.

That scale is why Citi’s digital asset work matters. Tokenized deposits, programmable payments, tokenized trade finance, private market tokenization, and future digital asset custody are not isolated products. They are pieces of a wider infrastructure strategy.

Citi is also reportedly investing in digital asset custody and post-trade infrastructure so clients can safekeep and mobilize assets with the same confidence they expect in traditional markets. The bank says clients are increasingly expecting deposits, payments, investment assets, and collateral to move across traditional and tokenized forms with less friction.

The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards recognize firms building the systems that could define the next phase of finance. Citi’s nomination reflects its role in moving digital assets from lab experiments into the operating infrastructure of global banking.