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Citi Token Services, the bank’s blockchain-based platform for moving tokenised deposits, is now live in the UAE, Citi announced on 28 September 2026. The UAE launch handles both USD and EUR transactions, and lands alongside a simultaneous Japan launch that covers USD only.
What Token Services actually does
Citi Token Services uses tokenised deposits and a private, permissioned blockchain to move liquidity across Citi’s network programmatically and near-instantaneously, rather than through the batch-processing and cut-off-time constraints of conventional correspondent banking.
The bank says it is already processing billions of dollars in transactions across the network. Rizwan Shaikh, Citi’s head of services for Middle East and Africa, said:
“Expanding Citi Token Services into the UAE with USD and Euro capabilities enables clients to manage cross-currency liquidity 24/7.”
Kanika Thakur, Citi’s head of services for Japan, Asia North and Australia, added on the parallel Japan launch: “The expansion of Citi Token Services into Japan connects clients in the market to Citi’s growing 24/7 payments, collateral and liquidity solutions.”
Seven markets, and the UAE isn’t first
The UAE becomes the seventh market for Citi Token Services, joining the US, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Japan, which went live the same day. Clients in the UAE can transfer funds to and from their own accounts and to other Citi clients already using the service in the markets where it’s active, extending Citi’s existing tokenised-deposit network rather than launching a standalone regional product.
Why it matters
A major global bank running live tokenised-deposit infrastructure in the UAE, handling real client transactions rather than a sandbox trial, is a different kind of signal than the CBUAE-licensed dirham stablecoins this venture has covered from Zand, RAKBank and the DDSC initiative. Those are UAE-regulated products built for the local market; Citi Token Services is a global bank extending its own existing institutional network into the UAE as one more node, using currencies (USD, EUR) that sit outside CBUAE’s own dirham-focused stablecoin licensing regime entirely.
What’s next
Citi hasn’t disclosed transaction volumes for the UAE specifically, named client counts, or whether AED support is planned for Token Services in this market. Whether other global banks follow with their own live tokenised-deposit deployments in the UAE, rather than pilots or MOUs, is the concrete thing worth tracking next.
FAQs
What are tokenised deposits?
A digital representation of a bank’s own conventional deposit liabilities, recorded and moved on a blockchain rather than through the batch-processing rails of conventional banking. Unlike a stablecoin, a tokenised deposit remains a liability of the issuing bank itself.
Is Citi Token Services the same as a stablecoin?
No. It moves Citi’s own tokenised deposits across a private, permissioned blockchain restricted to Citi’s institutional clients, rather than issuing a publicly circulating token the way a stablecoin does.
Which currencies does Citi Token Services support in the UAE?
USD and EUR. The UAE launch does not currently include AED.
Which markets does Citi Token Services operate in?
Seven as of 28 September 2026: the United States, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan and the UAE.
Editor’s Take: The concrete fact here is that Citi is running live client transactions on this platform in the UAE, which is a stronger claim than most bank-blockchain announcements in this market make. The USD/EUR-only scope is also worth sitting with plainly: this launch sits entirely outside the CBUAE’s own dirham-focused stablecoin licensing regime, a genuinely different regulatory lane from the Zand, RAKBank and DDSC stablecoin stories this venture has already covered, not a competing or overlapping one.