In Brief
- Citi's institutional clients can now accept stablecoin payments via Spring by Citi, with Coinbase handling the conversion to fiat and Citi managing the settlements.
- Coinbase integrates with Citi's Virtual Account Wallet to facilitate Coinbase Virtual Accounts, automatically converting incoming fiat into stablecoins.
- These features are being launched initially in the U.S., extending a partnership first revealed in October 2025.
Citi's large business clients can now facilitate payments in stablecoins without needing to hold the cryptocurrencies themselves.
On Monday, Coinbase announced an enhancement to its existing collaboration with the Wall Street banking giant. This update allows Coinbase's payment system to connect with Spring by Citi, the bank's merchant payment service, enabling Citi's institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments at checkout. Coinbase will convert these tokens into fiat currency, while Citi will handle the fund settlements as the official bank.
Stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies tied to traditional currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, allow for transactions to be settled at any time.
In addition, Coinbase has utilized Citi's Virtual Account Wallet, a feature of the bank's banking-as-a-service offerings, to create Coinbase Virtual Accounts. These accounts enable businesses on the Coinbase platform to receive, hold, and transfer funds similarly to a traditional bank account, with incoming fiat automatically converted into stablecoins.
Both features will debut in the U.S., with plans for additional functionalities in the coming months, targeting an audience of over 150 million stablecoin holders globally.
"Citi is the kind of regulated banking partner needed for the digital asset economy to transition from experimentation to mainstream commerce," remarked Brett Tejpaul, head of Coinbase Institutional.
This expansion builds on a partnership announced last October, which aimed to streamline crypto on- and off-ramps for Citi's institutional clients by facilitating fiat pay-ins and payouts. Recently, Citi has made further strides into digital assets, including plans to incorporate Bitcoin custody within its Custody+ suite.
Meanwhile, Coinbase is expanding beyond trading services; last week it introduced fixed-rate USDC loans secured by Bitcoin, powered by Morpho. In August, it launched tokenized stocks on Base, its Ethereum layer-2 network, aimed at users outside the U.S.