Citi and Coinbase Partner to Expand Stablecoin Payments for Businesses
Citigroup and Coinbase have partnered to enable seamless transitions between fiat and stablecoins for Citi clients, leveraging blockchain technology. This collaboration integrates Coinbase Virtual Accounts with Citi's banking platform and utilizes Spring by Citi for merchant stablecoin payments, streamlining digital asset management for businesses.
Citigroup (Citi) and Coinbase, the United States’ largest cryptocurrency exchange, have announced a partnership to simplify how businesses move between traditional currencies and stablecoins. The collaboration aims to help Citi’s clients access blockchain-based payment solutions without managing separate banking and cryptocurrency systems.
The move reflects growing interest among traditional financial institutions in using blockchain technology to improve payment efficiency and meet demand for digital asset services.
The partnership builds on Citi’s expanding digital asset strategy. Last month, the bank outlined plans to offer institutional investors custody services for traditional assets and Bitcoin within a unified framework later this year.
Debopama Sen, Citi’s Head of Payments, Services, said the bank aims to develop payment infrastructure that works seamlessly across traditional and digital payment networks, describing the goal as building “the next generation of payments infrastructure.”
How the Citi-Coinbase Partnership Will Work
The collaboration has two main components. Coinbase Virtual Accounts, built on Citi’s banking-as-a-service platform, will give Coinbase’s payment customers account-like capabilities to receive, hold, and send funds, with Citi providing regulated banking infrastructure to support moving money between fiat currencies and stablecoins.
Separately, Citi’s merchant platform, Spring by Citi, will integrate Coinbase’s infrastructure to enable enterprise clients to accept stablecoin payments at checkout, with Coinbase converting the stablecoins into traditional currency before Citi settles the funds to merchants.
The arrangement is designed to let businesses accept digital currency payments without directly holding or managing stablecoins. Alec Lovett, Coinbase’s Head of Infrastructure Product, said fintech companies using Coinbase have needed a fast, compliant link between traditional currencies and stablecoins, adding that Citi could provide that capability at scale.
The companies first announced their collaboration last year, with the aim of expanding digital asset payment services for institutional clients. Citi is also developing other blockchain-based financial services, including Citi Token Services, which uses tokenised deposits to support real-time cross-border payments.
The bank has additionally held discussions with institutions including Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America about the potential issuance of its own stablecoin. Together, these initiatives highlight Citi’s efforts to explore how tokenised money and blockchain infrastructure could reshape business payments and institutional financial services.