Citi Expands Stablecoin Payments with Coinbase Partnership

Citi and Coinbase have expanded their partnership to allow large corporate clients to accept stablecoin payments from customers. The arrangement links Coinbase's blockchain infrastructure with Citi's existing merchant-processing and settlement network.

The service targets multinational companies already using Citi for payment processing, allowing them to receive stablecoins at checkout. Coinbase provides the payment rails and technology needed to convert the tokens into government-issued currency before Citi settles the funds as bank of record.

This marks another step in the convergence of conventional banking and blockchain-based payments, according to the WSJ. The division of responsibilities keeps conventional settlement within the banking system, with Coinbase handling the digital-asset side of the transaction and Citi managing the corresponding traditional-currency settlement.