After reports stated that Citigroup built its' own bitcoin currency, the global bank seems to be looking at incorporating the underlying distributed ledger technology - blockchain, as a way to help manage their $1t of global daily transactions and remove currency volatility. With many rising blockchain players, banks will have to decide if they build internal products or partner with existing blockchains experts.
"For us it's not so much about bitcoin because bitcoin is something that has very volatile value, questionable in terms of an entry in and entry out from a regulatory perspective. But if you think about the distributed ledger -that is extremely valuable," said Menon, who also heads application programme interface development at Citigroup. Traditional banks like Citi and JP Morgan are scrambling to play catch-up with new-age fintech companies that are starting to leverage blockchain technology .