Citigroup Launches Tokenized Private Share Trading for Wealthy Global Clients

Citigroup is creating a blockchain-based service that lets wealthy and institutional clients trade exposure to private companies through tokenized depositary receipts. The bank is starting with foreign investors and plans to expand access to U.S. clients later.

The bank is building the venture for wealthy and institutional investors at a time when demand is rising for earlier access to high-growth private businesses, as evidenced by the SpaceX and Anthropic IPO plans.

Artem Korenyuk, Citi’s global lead for digital assets enterprise alignment and services enablement, said the goal is to let clients hold private company exposure “right next to their Apple stock.”

For now, the product is available only to foreign investors. Citi plans to open it to U.S. investors later. The bank will charge transaction and maintenance-based fees, and said its infrastructure could also be used by other banks.

Citi says this approach offers a clearer alternative to special-purpose vehicles (SPVs), which are often used to access private companies but have drawn scrutiny over transparency and investor protections.

“With those, investors don’t know what they’re actually buying,” Korenyuk said. “This is a very clear alternative model.”

Citi’s initial trade involved wealth clients investing in Kaleido, an institutional tokenization and digital-asset platform. The bank said the launch required coordination across its five business lines, a sign of how seriously it is treating digital asset infrastructure.

For Citi, private shares are the next test. If the model works, tokenized depositary receipts could give investors a more transparent route into private markets while giving banks a new way to compete in the race to modernize capital markets.