Citibank & SDK Smash Wall Street’s Paperwork Obsession—Tokenizing the $74B Private Equity Market

Wall Street’s ivory tower just got a blockchain enema. Citibank and SDK are dragging the $74 trillion private equity market kicking and screaming onto the blockchain—because apparently fax machines and PDFs weren’t inefficient enough for 2025.

The play: Tokenizing illiquid assets to let institutional money move at crypto speeds. No more 45-day settlement windows or notarized-in-triplicate nonsense. Just programmable ownership that actually works in this century.

Cynic’s corner: Watch legacy finance ’innovate’ by recreating existing DeFi primitives—but with 300% more compliance overhead and banker bonuses.

Addressing Early Challenges With Blockchain-Enabled Private Markets

The tokenization of real-world assets has become a focal point for traditional financial institutions in recent years. However, during the initial phases of this trend, blockchain-enabled private markets attracted significant attention with limited tangible outcomes.

David Newns, CEO of SDX, highlighted the challenges faced by early Web3 initiatives aiming to revolutionize private markets. “Many hopeful Web3 projects saw blockchain rails as a way to streamline outdated processes and enable easy access and distribution for private markets,” Newns said.

He further added that the evolving landscape of tokenization addresses this issue by balancing between innovation with compliance in the financial sector.

Citi and SDX’s latest collaboration comes amid growing momentum for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, with notable moves from both traditional finance and crypto sectors making headlines last week.

Citi, a pioneer among major financial institutions in championing tokenization, has long expressed confidence in its transformative potential. The firm has even described tokenization as a contender for the next “killer use case” in the crypto industry.

Companies have shown sustained interest in crypto for some time, with major institutions now deepening their involvement. For instance, Goldman Sachs is looking to expand its crypto trading activities and explore areas like lending and tokenization, according to its Digital Assets head. These plans, however, hinge on upcoming regulatory approvals.

Citibank and SDK Join Hands to Tokenize the $74 Billion Private Equity Market