Citi and Coinbase Working Together To Build Stablecoin Infrastructure for Businesses

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Citigroup and Coinbase are teaming up on a blockchain-based venture to let Citi clients move between regular money and stablecoins without managing separate banking and crypto systems.

The partnership features two parts. First, Coinbase Virtual Accounts, built on Citi’s banking-as-a-service platform, will provide Coinbase payments customers with bank-account-like features to accept, hold, and send funds, with Citi providing the regulated banking backbone for fiat-to-stablecoin conversions. Second, Citi’s merchant platform, Spring by Citi, will utilize Coinbase infrastructure to enable enterprise clients to accept stablecoin payments at checkout, with Coinbase converting stablecoins to fiat and Citi settling the funds.

According to the joint statement, the announcement highlights big banks utilizing Bitcoin's underlying technology. Debopama Sen, Head of Payments and Services at Citi, stated the goal is to build next-generation payments infrastructure operating across traditional and digital instruments. Alec Lovett, Coinbase’s Head of Infrastructure Product, noted that Citi provides a fast, compliant bridge between fiat and stablecoins at scale. The two companies previously announced a partnership last year to enhance digital asset payment capabilities.