Citi and Coinbase Unveil Merchant Stablecoin Payments With Fiat Settlement

Citi and Coinbase have deepened their collaboration to enable businesses to accept stablecoin payments and convert incoming fiat into stablecoins. The partnership allows clients building on Coinbase to offer branded virtual accounts for accepting, holding, and sending funds, as well as automatically convert incoming fiat into stablecoins.

The initiative will launch first in the United States, where Citi's Virtual Account Wallet powers Coinbase Virtual Accounts. These accounts enable customers to accept, hold, pay, and automatically convert incoming fiat into stablecoins.

Alec Lovett, head of infrastructure product at Coinbase, said that by powering its Virtual Accounts with Citi’s regulated banking infrastructure, Coinbase can provide its clients with a fast, compliant bridge between fiat and stablecoins. This allows customers to get 'bank account-like functionality with the speed of stablecoins underneath it.'

Coinbase has also adopted Spring by Citi, the bank's payment acceptance platform for merchant acquiring, gateway technology, and settlement. This enables Citi’s institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments without holding or managing stablecoins themselves.