Citigroup launches tokenized private equity shares on…

Citigroup is rolling out a blockchain-based framework that allows wealthy and institutional clients to trade shares of private, pre-IPO companies through tokenized depositary receipts. The bank is already in discussions with some of the largest private enterprises to bring them onto the platform, with Citigroup acting as the foundational issuer and custodian of all on-chain instruments.

Why it matters

Tokenized depositary receipts — securities representing fractional ownership in corporate shares, minted and structured on-chain — give institutional and high-net-worth investors access to pre-IPO equity that has historically been locked behind closed networks and bilateral deals. Citigroup's explicit ambition is for the framework to be adopted by peer firms across Wall Street, which would mark a structural shift in how private capital markets operate. If the model scales, it could compress the liquidity premium that private companies have long carried relative to their public counterparts.

Market impact

The move positions Citigroup at the front of a race among major banks to tokenize real-world assets on public or permissioned blockchains. It adds institutional weight to the broader RWA tokenization narrative that has been building across BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and JPMorgan. For crypto-native investors, it validates the infrastructure thesis: settlement rails built on blockchain are increasingly the chosen architecture for the next generation of capital markets plumbing.