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Citi has appointed a head of digital assets for its institutional client group (ICG) and plans to continue its hiring spree in the space.
Puneet Singhvi will join the ICG’s business development team on Dec. 1, according to a memo obtained by Blockworks. The note was written by Emily Turner, the ICG’s head of business development, and sent to colleagues.
“We believe in the potential of blockchain and digital assets including the benefits of efficiency, instant processing, fractionalization, programmability and transparency,” Turner wrote. “ICG’s digital asset efforts are a continuation of our work with blockchain, and are consistent with our strategy to research emerging technologies, collaborate with partners to develop solutions and implement new capabilities enabled by robust governance and controls.”
Singhvi was most recently working with the company’s global markets division, where he led many of Citi’s foundational steps in the blockchain and digital assets as well as its relationships with major financial market infrastructure providers, according to the memo.
He will build out the team and work with other Citi divisions to identify and develop products and capabilities for digital assets.
“The ICG Digital Assets team will provide subject matter expertise, product development, project management and importantly outline a distinct strategy on where and how ICG should pursue digital asset opportunities including new products, new clients, and new investments,” Turner explains in the note.
The memo also announces the appointment of Shobhit Maini and Vasant Viswanathan as co-heads of blockchain and digital assets for Citi’s global markets division.
Citi intends to fill up to 100 additional roles to support its digital asset capabilities across the ICG, a spokesperson told Blockworks.
This is not the financial services giant’s first foray into crypto.
The global bank said in August that it was looking into trading bitcoin futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) for some of its institutional clients.
Citi also led a $15 million Series A funding round for digital asset data company Amberdata in September. More recently, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told Yahoo Finance that digital assets would be part of the future of financial services and markets, noting that the company was working to connect clients to wallets and enable corporate clients to accept consumer payments.
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