Citi: Blockchain in the Background

plus: US jobs, and who's to blame for inflation

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” - Eleanor Roosevelt ||

Hi all, and happy Friday!! I hope you have good things planned for the weekend – me, more Christmas markets, can’t get enough of them. Hot chocolate, mittens, mulled wine, old books, candied fruit, decorations, lots of sparkly lights… I do love December.

It’s deep dive day! This is a (sort of) regular series in which I look at work a known tradfi institution has been doing on crypto applications.

Today, I turn the timeline on Citi, which just might even predate JPMorgan on blockchain investment. I feel that a lot of what they’ve been doing has been dismissed as “tradfi tinkering”, but that overlooks 1) how important tinkering is, 2) the number of live projects they’re had running for a while, and 3) the sheer scale of what Citi can pull off.

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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• Citi: Blockchain in the Background

• Macro: US jobs, and who’s to blame for inflation

Crypto is Macro Now offers ~daily commentary and updates on the overlap between the crypto and macro landscapes.

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WHAT I’M WATCHING:

Citi: Blockchain in the Background

Here goes the third of my tradfi-crypto profiles, a (sort-of) weekly series in which I dive into blockchain work from traditional institutions, in an attempt to get a feel for trends that are likely to impact the structure of finance. I though the recent JPMorgan one was ambitious – this one was perhaps even more so, although mercifully with fewer rebrands. For the next one, I think I’ll choose something more modest. 🙄

I have no doubt there are Citi blockchain initiatives that didn’t make it into this summary – I focused on the ones I felt were most indicative and/or impactful, but do reach out if you know of something I should have included but didn’t. Also, if you work for Citi or know someone who does, and I got something wrong below, do please step in! I’ll try and keep this overview updated as new developments come in.

As usual, the overall format is a timeline, but with follow-ups which branch off. I think it flows; my aim is to convey the direction and focus of the institution, which has largely emphasized pushing blockchain into the background, treating it as another financial tool rather than as a standalone feature. More holistic than tech-forward, if you will, which makes sense given Citi’s legacy reputation and global reach.

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Intro: the early years