Citi and SDX to Tokenize Late-Stage Private Shares by Q3 2025

Citi and SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) announced a new partnership today at the Point Zero Forum in Switzerland to offer tokenized shares of late-stage private companies to investors.

The project, expected to launch by the third quarter of 2025, will allow Citi to tokenize shares of private companies, handle their transactions, and store them securely on SDX’s blockchain-based platform. According to a press release, the initiative aims to make equity in fast-growing, venture-backed firms more accessible to institutional and other eligible investors.

The news comes as tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) continues to accelerate, with the total value of RWAs on-chain recently surpassing $22 billion – an increase of nearly 11% over the past month, according to data from rwa.xyz. The number of asset holders has also grown, rising 5.64% in the same period to 100,115.

This surge reflects increasing institutional interest in using blockchain infrastructure to modernize access to traditional financial (TradFi) assets. Kevin Rusher, founder of RWA lending platform RAAC, told The Defiant last month that RWAs are “the only sector in crypto still reaching new all-time highs while most are far from their highest levels and suffering heavy losses.”

In response to the newly announced collaboration, David Newns, the head of SDX, said, “We are excited to welcome Citi to the SDX platform and together deliver this landmark project in the tokenization of private shares. This initiative will distinguish itself in the industry by using SDX’s regulated blockchain-based technology to enable the efficient distribution of shares in mature international private companies, which are expected to generate strong investor interest."