Citi expands Coinbase partnership for business stablecoin payments

Citi and Coinbase are expanding their partnership to support stablecoin payments for businesses. Coinbase will use Citi's Virtual Account Wallet to power its Virtual Accounts. The setup will let customers accept, hold and pay fiat. It will automatically convert incoming funds into stablecoins. Citi's institutional clients will be able to accept stablecoin payments through its Spring by Citi platform. Coinbase will handle the stablecoin payment rails. Coinbase will automatically convert digital assets into fiat for settlement. The initiatives are launching first in the U.S. They are designed to give businesses bank-account-like functionality. They are also designed to enable stablecoin payments without requiring merchants to directly hold or manage digital assets. Citi and Coinbase first announced a collaboration in October 2025 focused on fiat-to-crypto payment infrastructure. Citi's head of payments, Debopama Sen, said the goal is to build payments infrastructure that works across traditional and digital payment instruments and networks. Last year, Citi and Coinbase said they were exploring ways to improve digital-payment initiatives. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said crypto and stablecoins are tools that will update the global financial system. Armstrong also said he was excited to collaborate with Citi on improving stablecoin utility and digital asset adoption with its clients.