Citi and Coinbase said on September 28 they are expanding their collaboration to let large corporate clients accept stablecoin payments at checkout without building their own crypto infrastructure. Under the arrangement, detailed in a joint press release, Citi acts as the bank of record while Coinbase supplies the digital rails that move and convert the tokens.
Two initiatives anchor the expansion
The collaboration introduces two products. First, Coinbase Virtual Accounts: Coinbase has selected Citi Services’ Virtual Account Wallet, part of its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) capabilities, to power bank-account-like functionality for its payments customers, with incoming fiat automatically converted into stablecoins — a step the companies described as an industry first. Second, merchant acceptance: Citi will let its institutional clients take stablecoin payments through Spring by Citi, its integrated payment acceptance platform, powered by Coinbase Payments. The expansion marks the latest milestone in Citi Services’ broader digital-assets strategy, which aims to connect traditional financial infrastructure with digital networks across cash management, securities, and collateral.
How the fiat-to-stablecoin flow works
The division of labor keeps each firm in its lane. Coinbase runs the crypto conversion and custody, while Citi settles the funds as bank of record and manages the merchant relationship. The companies said the setup lets merchants reach more than 150 million stablecoin holders globally without holding, custodying, or managing digital assets directly. The initiatives launch first in the United States, extending Coinbase’s broader push into stablecoin payments for community banks to a global banking partner.
Citi deepens its institutional crypto push
The expanded deal builds on an October 2025 Citi–Coinbase collaboration that began with fiat pay-ins and pay-outs and on- and off-ramps. Shahmir Khaliq, head of services at Citi, called the partnership “a pivotal step” in the bank’s services strategy. “We provide regulated, bank-grade solutions that remove significant hurdles for clients who want to engage in the digital economy,” he said. Brett Tejpaul, head of Coinbase Institutional, said the collaboration gives “Coinbase customers bank-grade fiat infrastructure on one side and Citi’s institutional clients easy, low-friction stablecoin acceptance on the other.” Citi, which moves roughly $6 trillion a day and banks 90% of the top e-commerce companies, has separately forecast a $5.5 trillion real-world asset tokenization market by 2030, with stablecoins expected to drive $1 trillion in treasury demand. Both companies said they will continue to collaborate on additional capabilities in the coming months.
