Citigroup will let corporate clients accept stablecoin payments without holding the tokens themselves, using Coinbase for blockchain processing while the bank converts incoming digital dollars into traditional currency, according to News.bitcoin. The arrangement rests on a partnership the two companies first disclosed in October 2025 and was detailed in a Wall Street Journal report published Monday, Sept. 28.
The bank will not comment on which stablecoins, blockchain networks or client names are involved. News.bitcoin reported that Citi and Coinbase have not disclosed a launch date, participating clients or supported stablecoins, and U.today said the Journal report does not specify which stablecoins or networks will be supported.
Also read: US and UK Treasuries Move to Harmonize Stablecoin and Tokenization Rules
Key facts
- Coinbase supplies the public blockchain connection; Citi handles merchant acquisition, conversion into conventional currency and bank settlement.
- Citi’s Token Services platform, running since 2024, moves roughly $1 billion in tokenized bank deposits daily.
- Citi’s wider payments business carries about $6 trillion, and the bank operates across 94 markets and more than 300 payment networks.
- The arrangement also runs in reverse: Coinbase Payments customers can use bank-style account services to receive, hold and distribute funds, with an option to convert cash into stablecoins held at Coinbase.
- Citi Research’s Stablecoins 2030 forecast puts base-case stablecoin issuance at $1.9 trillion by 2030, with a $4 trillion bull case and roughly $100 trillion in annual turnover under its base scenario.
Coinbase gets the blockchain, Citi keeps the banking
The division of labour is narrow and specific. A corporate customer that wants to be paid in stablecoins routes the payment through Coinbase, which handles the on-chain transaction. Citi turns the tokens into ordinary money and pushes funds to the merchant through its banking network. The merchant never has to manage a crypto wallet.
That complements what Citi already runs internally. Its tokenized deposits sit on a private, permissioned ledger and do not automatically accept USDC arriving from a public blockchain wallet, which is the gap Coinbase fills. Citi has also been pushing tokenized bank transfers toward Japan and the United Arab Emirates, and its Custody+ offering, unveiled in August, is slated to add custody for native digital assets, starting with bitcoin.
Also read: Bybit Opens Franklin Templeton Benji Funds as Trading Collateral
A partnership that crosses a policy fight
The two firms spent much of 2026 on opposite sides of the Washington argument over stablecoin rewards, particularly around the stalled Clarity Act. Banks have argued that crypto rewards resemble deposit interest without the equivalent banking requirements; Coinbase has resisted restrictions it calls anticompetitive. Coinbase currently advertises USDC rewards of approximately 3.75% annually — a Coinbase rate, not a Citi deposit rate.
U.today reported that Citi has laid out four pillars for its digital-asset business: expanding Citi Token Services, improving interoperability, developing custody and tokenization, and providing banking infrastructure to virtual-asset service providers. Citi has said it wants to act as a bridge between fiat currencies, stablecoins and other tokens. The bank has also moved into tokenized securities: in June it launched Digital Depositary Receipts representing shares in private companies, using regulated blockchain infrastructure operated by SIX, with Citi as both issuer and custodian.
Why it matters
The deal hands the largest U.S. bank’s corporate payment flow to a crypto exchange for the blockchain leg of the transaction, while Citi keeps the deposit relationship and settlement business. That matters for corporate treasurers deciding whether to accept stablecoins at all — the bank absorbs the operational burden they have cited as a barrier. It also tests whether a tokenized-deposit ledger that has run privately since 2024 can coexist with public-chain money, and gives the stablecoin market a sanctioned route into mainstream commerce rather than a workaround.
What to watch
Three details are still undisclosed and will define how meaningful the arrangement is in practice: the launch date, the corporate clients taking part, and which stablecoins will be accepted. Progress on the Clarity Act, which U.today described as stalled, is the other variable — it shapes the rewards fight that has kept Citi and Coinbase on opposite sides even as they build together.
The figures above describe a research forecast, not a commitment by Citi or Coinbase. This is not financial advice, and crypto and stablecoin markets are volatile and uncertain.
Reported by news.bitcoin.com.
Sources: Bitcoin.com News, U.today
