Share this article
Citi Ventures Backs Its First Digital Asset Manager, Co-Leading a $6M Round in Xalts
Accel co-led the round for the startup building institutional-grade digital asset products.
By Brandy Betz
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:58 a.m. Published Oct 6, 2022, 4:24 p.m.
Citi Ventures and venture capital firm Accel co-led a $6 million funding round for xalts, an institutional-grade digital asset management startup founded by a former trader at banking giant HSBC and a former Meta Asia executive. The funding comes as institutional investors continue to move into the cryptocurrency industry despite the crypto bear market.
“With xalts, we are building innovative, institutional-grade investment products and solutions which focus on high compliance and control standards – things institutional investors care about," said xalts Chief Investment Officer Ashutosh Goel, formerly of HSBC, in the press release. "The next leg of growth in digital assets will be driven by institutional participation in the asset class. We are starting to see the early signs of that with a lot of new initiatives coming from banks and asset managers."
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Founded by Goel and Supreet Kaur, Hong-Kong based xalts expects to launch multiple digital asset-related investment products, including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds on several global exchanges. The development pipeline includes partnerships with asset management firms and staking infrastructure providers to launch and manage other financial products.
"Xalts is our first investment in a digital asset manager, and we support its vision of creating innovative products to meet the growing appetite of institutional investors for more efficient and robust crypto-access investments,” said Citi Ventures Managing Director Luis Valdich in a statement.
Citi’s investment continues a busy season for institutional investments in crypto. Last month, financial titans Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities and Fidelity Investments launched a new cryptocurrency exchange, EDX Markets, while Earlier this week, Fidelity launched a new Ethereum index fund for accredited investors.
Read more: How Are Institutions and Companies Investing in Crypto?
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Turkey's Paribu Buys CoinMENA in $240M Deal, Expanding Into High-Growth Crypto Markets
With the acquisition, Paribu gains regulatory foothold in Bahrain and Dubai and access to the region's fast-growing crypto user base.
What to know:
- Paribu acquires Bahrain- and Dubai-based CoinMENA for up to $240 million.
- Deal marks Turkey’s biggest fintech acquisition and first international crypto M&A, the firm said.
- The move taps into the MENA region’s fast-growing crypto user base and supportive regulatory hubs.
Top Stories
