The Post-Trade Convergence Gap: Between Vision & Operational Reality

The post-trade ecosystem stands at an inflection point, but the distance between industry consensus and institutional implementation reveals more about the challenges ahead than the progress made.

Citi's latest GPS report "The Future of Post-Trade" reveals a clear consensus emerging around four fundamental shifts: accelerated settlements, digital asset integration, automation of asset servicing, and settlement efficiency improvements. Citi's research documents a remarkable acceleration in industry consensus from 53% agreement on core transformation themes in 2023 to 80% in 2025. 

Recently announced partnerships from ByBit-QNB, and Canton Network-Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) show this consensus translating into concrete infrastructure development. By becoming the first crypto exchange to accept QCDT (a DFSA-approved tokenised money market fund) as collateral, ByBit has operationalized what Citi identifies as the integration of distributed ledger technology with traditional market structure. This same dynamic is at the heart of Canton Network’s recently announced plans to help the DTCC tokenize Depository Trust Company (DTC) custodied U.S. Treasury securities.

The numbers from Citi's report show 40% of global securities turnover on T+1 or shorter cycles, 82% of respondents recognizing DLT's transformative potential. But recognition and deployment are fundamentally different challenges. The gap between acknowledging DLT's promise and building operational infrastructure that can handle institutional-scale settlements under regulatory scrutiny remains substantial.

Convergence Accelerates as Tokenization Bridges the Gap

This year, ByBit became the first global crypto exchange to partner with QNB Group and DMZ Finance, introducing QCDT—the world's first DFSA-approved tokenised money market fund—as collateral on their platform. We also saw Laser Digital’s KAIO announce the tokenization of a variety of funds from Blackrock, Laser Digital, and Hamilton Lane on a variety of blockchain networks giving institutional and accredited investors access to products they’re familiar with, like Hamilton Lane’s Senior Credit Opportunities Fund (SCOPE), onchain. And finally, the No-Action Letter DTCC received from the SEC opened the door for the tokenization of all assets custodied and cleared by the DTCC. 

These partnerships exemplify exactly what Citi's research predicts: the integration of traditional financial instruments with digital asset infrastructure. This shift reflects the architectural advantages that Citi's report emphasizes: building for 24x7, real-time operations from the ground up. When exchanges and other market participants can accept tokenised money market funds as collateral while generating institutional-scale borrowing capabilities, it demonstrates the operational flexibility that comes from designing infrastructure for "always-on" markets rather than retrofitting legacy systems designed for batch processing and business-hour operations.

The Impending Custody Evolution 

The custody transformation that Citi's report identifies reflects experimentation rather than wholesale change. European banks now provide cryptocurrency services through 64 institutions compared to 30 in North America, but these institutions are hedging their bets, testing capabilities in parallel to core operations rather than replacing established systems. 

This approach makes sense given the unresolved questions around custody models that bridge traditional and digital assets: What happens when tokenised collateral faces a liquidity crisis? How do cross-jurisdictional claims work when the underlying asset exists on multiple ledgers? Who bears operational risk when smart contracts interact with traditional settlement systems?

Expect to see answers to those questions in 2026 from both crypto native custody providers, like Anchorage Digital with their Atlas Network, and traditional custodians, like Citi Bank, as they look to meet the demand for the institutional-grade custody of digital assets. 

Citi's Platformification Vision in Action

The "platformification" that Citi's report identifies as the future of post-trade operations requires exactly the kind of interoperability we see in the ByBit-QNB and KAIO-Sei partnerships. Rather than a winner-take-all model, this collaboration demonstrates how financial infrastructure can enable institutions to access liquidity across venues while maintaining appropriate risk controls and regulatory compliance. 

Citi's research emphasizes that success depends on interoperability, regulatory harmonization, and governance frameworks. The ByBit-QNB, Canton Network-DTCC, and KAIO-Sei partnerships highlighted above check all three boxes: technical interoperability between traditional structures and crypto collateral systems, regulatory approval, and governance that satisfies both traditional banking oversight and crypto operational requirements.

Realizing Citi's Always-On Vision

Citi's report envisions a "24x7 real-time post-trade world," but the path from vision to operational reality remains unclear. While the technology foundation exists and some regulatory frameworks are evolving constructively, the economic case for institutional adoption is far from proven. Experimental partnerships generating hundreds of millions in borrowing capabilities represent tiny fractions of the trillions in daily global settlement volumes that would need to migrate for this vision to materialize.

The fundamental question isn't whether always-on infrastructure is technically possible – it clearly is – but whether it solves problems that traditional institutions actually have. Current post-trade systems may be slower and more expensive, but they're also comprehensively stress-tested, deeply integrated with risk management frameworks, and accepted by regulators worldwide. The switching costs are enormous, and the benefits remain theoretical until these new models prove themselves through full market cycles.

Moreover, the "collaborative approach" that Citi envisions assumes a level of coordination that hasn't materialized in practice. Regulatory fragmentation across jurisdictions, competing technical standards, and misaligned institutional incentives create barriers that no amount of technological sophistication can overcome alone.

The industry may be ready to adopt more efficient post-trade infrastructure in principle, but readiness and actual migration are fundamentally different challenges. Until someone solves the operational, regulatory, and economic realities that make legacy systems so persistent, the always-on financial future remains more aspiration than imminent reality.

Nirup Ramalingam is the CEO and Co-Founder of BridgePort, a middleware platform for off-exchange settlement in institutional crypto trading. He previously held senior roles at CME Group, overseeing global FX adoption at EBS, managing one of the largest OTC derivatives SEFs, and building crypto trading infrastructure. Earlier in his career, he held positions at NEX, ICAP, and RBS. Nirup holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from Macquarie University and a Chartered Accountancy qualification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia.