Citigroup Integrates Stablecoin Payments into Merchant Acquiring Services

Citigroup has entered into a partnership with Coinbase to enable stablecoin payments for its institutional clients. The service allows large corporate clients to accept digital-dollar payments from customers without having to build their own crypto infrastructure.

The partnership works through Citibank's merchant acquiring services, which provide the underlying banking relationship and regulatory framework. Meanwhile, Coinbase supplies the actual stablecoin payment channel along with the blockchain technology that makes those transactions possible.

The settlement process is facilitated by automatic conversion between stablecoins and fiat currency, with Citigroup acting as the custodian bank to finalize fund settlements. This means institutional clients don't need to hold or manage crypto assets directly, the conversion happens as part of the transaction flow.