Crypto expected to handle a tenth of post-trade market by 2030: Citi survey
A Citi survey of more than 500 finance executives found that tokens and digital assets are expected to handle roughly 10% of global post-trade market turnover within five years. Respondents pointed to stablecoins and tokenized securities as the primary mechanisms to drive that shift.
The report polled 537 custodians, banks, broker-dealers, asset managers and institutional investors across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East during June and July. More than half of those surveyed said their firms are piloting generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for post-trade functions.
Citi highlighted bank-issued stablecoins as the leading approach for improving collateral efficiency, supporting fund tokenization and enabling private market securities. Survey participants identified liquidity and post-trade cost efficiencies as the main reasons for investing in distributed ledger technology; many expect blockchain to materially affect these areas within the next three years.
"After years of groundwork, the global post-trade industry looks set for a period of transformation in speed, cost and resilience on an international scale."
Regional expectations vary: respondents in the United States forecast about 14% of market turnover will be conducted using digital or tokenized assets by 2030, compared with roughly 10% in Europe and 9% in the Asia Pacific. Citi noted U.S. sentiment has strengthened this year amid regulatory changes and participation from large firms.
Generative AI is expected to be an important enabler for post-trade operations. Some 57% of respondents said their organizations are piloting GenAI for post-trade tasks, and at least 67% of institutional investors reported using GenAI for reconciliation, reporting, clearing and settlements. Onboarding has been an especially common use case: 83% of brokers, 63% of custodians and 60% of asset managers said they are piloting GenAI to improve onboarding processes.
Citi also pointed to momentum from industry participants — including stablecoin issuers and major asset managers — in scaling digital liquidity. The bank concluded that, while widespread adoption is not yet complete, the industry may be approaching a tipping point that accelerates the adoption of tokenized assets and related technologies across global capital markets.
