The Daily: Wall Street giant Citi is getting into bitcoin custody, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Tuesday! Bitcoin's prolonged volatility squeeze increasingly favors an upside break as the foremost cryptocurrency heads back toward $65,000, according to Bitfinex analysts, though they said a sustained move may depend on spot ETF inflows and stablecoin liquidity returning.

In today's newsletter, Citi gets set to launch bitcoin custody, Metaplanet takes a 96% stake in Super League Entertainment, Kraken brings U.S. stock trading to the EEA, and more.

Meanwhile, "The Crypto Program" promoter Edward Zimbardi was deported from Fiji to face charges in the U.S. over an alleged $165 million Ponzi scheme.

👀 P.S. Don't forget to check out today's reader poll on Trump's meeting with crypto executives later in the newsletter.

⛰️ Reminder: We're on the ground at SALT's Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole Aug. 17-20, with exclusive interviews and coverage of the biggest stories shaping crypto and global finance.

Citi expects to launch bitcoin custody later this year under its new Custody+ platform

Citi is set to launch its digital asset custody service later this year, starting with bitcoin, as part of its new Custody+ platform.

• The bank had previously disclosed plans for native crypto custody in November, with Tuesday's announcement confirming a 2026 rollout and bitcoin named as the first supported asset.
• Clients will be able to hold both traditional and crypto assets within the same framework, built on Citi's common digital asset architecture, the firm said.
• Citi said Custody+ is designed for markets moving toward continuous trading and shorter settlement cycles, including real-time asset servicing, instant settlements, liquidity tools, and AI-driven market intelligence.
• Citi has been building out its digital asset infrastructure all year, working with Intercontinental Exchange on tokenized deposits and joining a Swift pilot for 24/7 cross-border payments.
• Citi is also part of a group of major U.S. banks planning a tokenized deposit network through The Clearing House, targeting a launch in the first half of 2027.

Metaplanet takes 96% of Super League in bitcoin-and-cash deal to launch US bitcoin treasury firm

Metaplanet, the so-called "Strategy of Japan," is taking a roughly 96% stake in Nasdaq-listed gaming media firm Super League Entertainment in a $134.6 million deal to build a U.S. bitcoin treasury platform.

• The investment includes 44.9 million new shares, plus preferred stock and warrants for 2,100 BTC and $2.5 million in cash, with Super League to be renamed Superplanet and trade as SUPA.
• Benchmark analysts said the deal stands out from the wave of shell-and-PIPE treasury transactions as Metaplanet is using bitcoin from its own balance sheet rather than discounted third-party capital.
• The 2,100 BTC is nearly 5% of Metaplanet's 43,000 BTC stack, with the deal extending its push beyond holding bitcoin into building bitcoin-based financial products.

Kraken brings US stock trading to European Economic Area customers

Crypto exchange Kraken officially launched U.S. stock trading for eligible customers across the European Economic Area, after a quiet rollout in Germany, the Netherlands, and France in recent days.

• Kraken said it's the only crypto-native platform offering EEA customers both traditional U.S.-listed shares and their tokenized versions (xStocks) in a single regulated account.
• Customers can trade more than 7,000 U.S. stocks alongside 600-plus crypto assets and over 700 xStocks, with no trading commissions, through a Cyprus-based entity authorized under MiFID II, the firm said.
• The move comes a week after parent company Payward posted $508 million in Q2 adjusted revenue with its volume mix tilting toward equities and tokenized equities.

Ripple partners with South Korea's Jeonbuk Bank for cross-border payments

Ripple has partnered with South Korea's Jeonbuk Bank to deploy Ripple Payments for real-time cross-border remittances, with settlement in seconds to minutes versus the days SWIFT transfers can take.

• Jeonbuk, the first regional bank in Korea to adopt Ripple Payments, will use it to offer faster remittances to clients like import-export firms, IT startups, and online content creators.
• The deal marks Ripple's third South Korean partnership this year, following tie-ups with Kyobo Life Insurance and Kbank.
• It comes as Korea's crypto market cools, with exchanges Upbit and Bithumb both posting nearly 50% revenue drops in the first half of 2026.

Curve founder says FATF pressure could make DeFi safer and more decentralized

Curve founder Michael Egorov said regulatory pressure from the Financial Action Task Force could ironically push DeFi protocols to become safer and more decentralized, even as he criticized how rules are being applied to the sector.

• His comments followed FATF's July report on how its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards (AML/CFT) should apply to DeFi.
• Protocols could respond by stripping out privileged access, upgrade risks, and any ability for a party to touch user funds, Egorov argued, calling smart-contract architecture the most objective measure of how decentralized a protocol really is.

Reader poll

Will Trump's meeting with crypto and prediction-market executives on Wednesday move the market?

YES, IT LIFTS CRYPTO

NO, LITTLE IMPACT

One click records your pick. We'll share the answer in a later edition.

Congratulations to the 43% of you in last Tuesday's poll who correctly guessed U.S. July headline CPI would not come in hotter than expected!

In the next 24 hours

• UK CPI inflation figures are due at 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday. U.S. mortgage data follows at 7 a.m. The latest U.S. FOMC meeting minutes are released at 2 p.m.
• IOTA is among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.
• Wyoming Blockchain Symposium and Coinfest Asia continue.

Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.