Citi launches Digital Depositary Receipts to broaden private market access

The announcement was made on June 11. The launch marks the first time a global financial services company is both issuing and acting as a custodian for tokenised depositary receipts representing private companies.

With initial public offering timelines lengthening, private companies are seeking alternative routes to liquidity without navigating fragmented secondary markets that often involve complex structures, multiple intermediaries, and opaque fees. Citi’s new solution addresses this gap by delivering an efficient, cost-effective, and digitally native approach for a traditionally illiquid segment of capital markets.

Building on its industry-leading Depositary Receipts and Custody businesses, Citi’s model uses tokenised depositary receipts to provide a flexible, institutional-grade alternative capable of meeting the scale needed for private markets. While other structures like third-party Special Purpose Vehicles serve a valuable market function, Citi’s model can reduce the potential for complexity and hidden costs given Citi acts as a single, trusted issuer and custodian.

Digital Depositary Receipts applies Citi Issuer Services’ depositary receipt product to private market shares, using blockchain infrastructure operated by SIX – one of the world’s first fully regulated digital central securities depositories – to tokenise those shares. As part of its collaboration with SIX, Citi serves as a custodian on the platform, responsible for the settlement and safekeeping of the tokenised depositary receipts.

This new solution went live with an inaugural transaction between Kaleido, an institutional tokenisation and digital asset platform and a Citi portfolio company, and investors within its Wealth business, with support from Citi’s Secondary Private Markets business. This successful launch represents a coordinated One Citi effort, bringing together its Issuer Services, Custody, Wealth, Markets, and Ventures teams to enhance the client experience and establish a scalable model for future issuances.

Biswarup Chatterjee, head of partnerships and innovation for Citi’s Services business said, “As private markets continue to grow, so has the need for diverse and trusted access points. Our Digital Depositary Receipts product is designed to provide superior client service, safeguard assets and facilitate capital markets activity with the same rigour that underpins traditional financial markets. The interoperability of the product will further enable Citi to support a wider range of issuers and investors as digital asset market infrastructure continues to evolve.”

This innovation is designed to ensure issuers receive efficient distribution and transfer without the need for public listing or altering underlying ownership rights. Companies maintain control over voting and a more simplified cap table management structure, while broadening investor outreach.

For Wealth clients, this product expands access to offerings through a familiar investment structure. By integrating tokenised depositary receipts into existing Wealth platforms, Citi aims to enhance client optionality while maintaining the operational safeguards and client experience investors expect.

“As digital assets reshape how financial markets evolve, our priority is ensuring Citi Wealth clients can engage with these developments in a secure and familiar way,” said Deborah Querub, head of Digital Assets for Wealth. “We’re focused on responsibly expanding access to new types of investment opportunities while preserving the structures, protections, and experience our clients expect. This transaction is an incremental step in our process of leveraging digital capabilities to enhance options for our Wealth clients.”

With the first issuance of Citi’s Digital Depositary Receipts completed today with Kaleido, Steve Cerveny, founder and CEO said, “Private companies like ours are scaling faster than the surrounding structures. This model finally brings a level of professionalism and transparency to private market capital formation that we’ve never had access to. Citi’s Digital Depositary Receipts allow us to explore new paths for growth while keeping the agility that makes private companies competitive, and that’s an advantage for founders planning long-term.”

Citi is considering future extensions of this offering to operate across both digital and traditional financial market infrastructures, as well as multiple blockchain networks.

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