Citi and Coinbase Bridge Stablecoins with Corporate Banking

Citi and Coinbase have strengthened their partnership to bring stablecoin payments into corporate banking. On September 28, the two companies expanded their infrastructure to enable Citi's institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments while giving Coinbase business customers access to bank-style virtual accounts powered by Citi.

The new infrastructure lets merchants accept stablecoin payments without needing to manage wallets or custody tokens. The process is seamless for both parties: Coinbase provides the blockchain infrastructure, converts the digital assets into traditional currency, and settles the funds as the bank of record. For the merchant, the end result can still be ordinary fiat.

Coinbase is using Citi's Virtual Account Wallet infrastructure to power its Virtual Accounts, which give businesses bank-account-like functionality while automatically converting incoming fiat into stablecoins where appropriate. This hybrid model is increasingly where institutional stablecoin adoption appears to be heading.