Citi expands Coinbase partnership to power stablecoin payments for businesses

Citi and Coinbase are broadening their existing partnership to bring stablecoin payments to corporate clients, building on a collaboration the two firms first unveiled in October 2025 around fiat-to-crypto payment infrastructure.

Under the expanded arrangement, Coinbase will rely on Citi's Virtual Account Wallet to power its Virtual Accounts. That setup lets customers accept, hold and pay fiat while incoming funds are automatically converted into stablecoins. In a separate workstream, Citi's institutional clients will be able to accept stablecoin payments through its Spring by Citi platform, with Coinbase supplying the stablecoin payment rails and automatically converting the digital assets into fiat for settlement.

The two initiatives are launching first in the United States. According to the companies, the goal is to give businesses bank-account-like functionality while supporting stablecoin payments without requiring merchants to hold or manage digital assets themselves.

Bank rails meets crypto rails

"Our clients operate in an increasingly fast-paced and complex global economy, and we're focused on delivering the solutions they need," Debopama Sen, Citi's head of payments, said in a press release. "Our goal is to build the next generation of payments infrastructure – one that is seamless, interoperable, and operates across both traditional and digital payments instruments and networks. This is about enabling the future of commerce, today."

The tie-up extends a relationship that the U.S. crypto exchange and the traditional banking group began exploring last year, when they said they were looking at ways to improve a range of digital-payment initiatives. At the time, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong framed stablecoins as a core part of the financial system's next phase.

"It's not a debate anymore - crypto and stablecoins are the tools that will update the global financial system," Armstrong said when the collaboration was announced. "Excited to be collaborating with Citi to work on improving stablecoin utility and digital asset adoption with their clients."

The move adds to a growing list of arrangements pairing regulated banks with crypto-native firms as stablecoin payment volumes and use cases expand, particularly among corporate treasury and cross-border payment functions.