Citi Expands Stablecoin Integration Into Traditional Financial Infrastructure

U.S. banking giant Citi and cryptocurrency platform Coinbase announced an expansion of their partnership. The companies plan to connect traditional banking infrastructure with blockchain-based payments, allowing corporate clients to use digital assets without building and maintaining separate systems.

The collaboration includes 2 key solutions:

1. Coinbase Virtual Accounts.
   Coinbase will use Citi’s Virtual Account Wallet solution to provide customers with virtual accounts. Users will be able to receive, hold, and send funds, while incoming fiat will be automatically converted into stablecoins.
2. Stablecoin acceptance for merchants.
   Citi’s institutional clients will be able to accept stablecoins for goods and services through the Spring by Citi platform. Coinbase Payments will power stablecoin acceptance, with funds automatically converted into fiat and Citi handling settlement as the bank of record.

Citi described the automatic conversion of incoming fiat into stablecoins through virtual accounts as an industry first. The bank’s infrastructure will provide Coinbase with regulated rails for moving funds between traditional and digital financial systems.

The second part of the partnership is primarily aimed at merchants. According to Citi, they could potentially accept payments from more than 150 million stablecoin holders worldwide. Merchants won’t need to hold digital assets themselves, arrange custody, or manage the conversion process. For the recipient, the payment will appear as a standard settlement in fiat currency.

For Citi, the project is part of a broader strategy to integrate tokenization and blockchain-based solutions into its payments infrastructure. The bank already operates Spring by Citi, Banking-as-a-Service, Citi Token Services, and 24/7 U.S. dollar clearing. Combined with Citi Token Services, the latter enables near-real-time, cross-border U.S. dollar payments around the clock.

For Coinbase, the agreement provides a way to integrate regulated banking infrastructure directly into its payment products. Businesses using Coinbase services will be able to manage fiat and stablecoins through a single system without building separate banking and blockchain infrastructure.

Citi and Coinbase said they would continue working on additional capabilities in the coming months. The expanded partnership reflects both companies’ efforts to make transactions between fiat currencies and digital assets part of standard payment infrastructure for businesses.

Citi and Coinbase first announced their partnership in October 2025, when they joined forces to integrate stablecoins into Citi’s cross-border payment infrastructure for corporate clients.