Citi Promotes Bitcoin ETFs to Wealth Clients as $1B Exits

Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are now being promoted to Citi's wealth-management clients even as close to $1 billion has exited the US Bitcoin funds during the two most recent trading sessions.

Monday saw a combined $538 million leave US Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. Those products, which give investors a way to hold crypto inside a brokerage account, had $111.3 billion in assets that day, data from SoSoValue show.

The Takeaways in Citi's Crypto Report to Clients

October brought a report from Citi Wealth titled “Expanding the Investable Universe: Introduction to Crypto ETFs.” The firm writes in it that suitable investors are seeking additional assets to hold alongside stocks and bonds.

The paper highlights regulatory clarity, adoption by institutions and a low long-term correlation with traditional assets, meaning digital coins have generally not tracked those markets. It also lays out risks and suitability limits.

Citi Wealth just published “Expanding the Investable Universe: Introduction to Crypto ETFs”, which pitches spot BTC and ETH ETFs as the regulated, brokerage-account way for suitable clients to add digital assets alongside stocks and bonds.

— matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) November 2, 2026

The Scale of the ETF Outflows

SoSoValue data puts November 2 outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs at $398.62 million. That followed $643 million of investor withdrawals on October 30, one day after hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance.

A redemption of ETF shares forces the issuer to either sell the Bitcoin that backs them or return it to the investor. The result is extra supply in the market for the token.

Ethereum ETFs recorded $139.80 million in redemptions on November 2, according to SoSoValue, stretching a run of outflows seen in most sessions since early October.

The latest Bitcoin outflow, however, amounts to only about 0.4% of the $98.12 billion the funds now hold. BlackRock's IBIT on its own saw $405.3 million leave in a single day, BeInCrypto reported.

Why Citi Has Not Announced a Bitcoin Custody Date

Citi announced back in August that Custody+ is set to begin safekeeping Bitcoin for institutional clients before the end of the year.

Sigel counts Citi as the sixth of 29 global systemically important banks — lenders regulators deem too big to fail — to have Bitcoin custody live or announced. He added that JPMorgan has ruled out custody for the time being.

He also floated an explanation for the silence, one that has not been confirmed.

“The Binance hack last week could be one reason Citi has stayed quiet on timing. I heard that the service was already set for launch last week,” he said.

Citi has not verified that account, and its official timeline is still “later this year.” BeInCrypto was first to report the Citi custody plans in August.

The period ahead will show whether Citi commits to a date by December 31 and whether the ETF outflows let up, a test of how well Wall Street's build-out and investor demand align again.