As demand for 24/7 and always-on financial services accelerates, corporate and financial institutional clients face operational complexity and risk when connecting traditional banking and securities services with new blockchain infrastructure. Through an expanded collaboration announced today, Citi and Coinbase are addressing this challenge by enabling clients to access new payment capabilities without having to build or manage separate infrastructure, driving interoperability across the global financial ecosystem.

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The expansion marks the latest milestone in Citi Services’ broader digital assets strategy, which focuses on solving real-world client needs by building production-grade capabilities that connect traditional financial infrastructure with emerging digital networks across cash management, securities and collateral ecosystems.

The collaboration introduces two core initiatives:

  • Coinbase Virtual Accounts: Coinbase has selected Citi’s Virtual Account Wallet solution, part of Citi Services’ Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) capabilities, to power Coinbase Virtual Accounts. This provides Coinbase’s payments customers with bank-account-like functionality to accept, hold, and pay funds, with incoming fiat automatically converted into stablecoins – an industry-first. Citi’s Virtual Account Wallet solution provides the regulated banking infrastructure needed to integrate digital asset platforms with the global financial system, facilitating scalable on- and off-ramps between traditional and digital finance.

  • Merchant Stablecoin Acceptance: In parallel, Citi will enable its institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments at checkout through Spring by Citi, its integrated payment acceptance platform. Coinbase Payments powers the stablecoin acceptance. The solution automatically converts digital currency into fiat, with Citi settling funds as the bank of record. This allows merchants to serve over 150 million stablecoin holders globally without needing to hold, custody or manage digital assets directly.

“This partnership with Coinbase is a pivotal step in our ongoing Services strategy to provide optionality for our clients,” said Shahmir Khaliq, Head of Services, Citi. “We provide regulated, bank-grade solutions that remove significant hurdles for clients who want to engage in the digital economy, while also providing a foundational service for a leading virtual asset service provider like Coinbase.”

Ashish Bajaj, Head of Services for North America, Citi added, “Our goal is to build the next generation of payments infrastructure that our clients need – one that is seamless, interoperable, and operates across both traditional and digital payments instruments and networks. This is about enabling the future of commerce, today.”

In addition to enabling interoperability between traditional finance and digital assets, Citi’s clients can now enable innovative new solutions that deliver choice and convenience to their customers. Together, the two companies bring the strength and credibility of trusted partners across traditional finance and the digital asset space.

“Clients building on Coinbase have always needed a fast, compliant bridge between fiat and stablecoins, and Citi gives us that at scale,” said Alec Lovett, Head of Infrastructure Product, Coinbase. “By powering our Virtual Accounts with Citi’s regulated banking infrastructure, we’re giving businesses bank-account-like functionality with the speed of stablecoins underneath it. And with Coinbase Payments powering stablecoin acceptance through Spring by Citi, our shared customers can move between fiat and digital assets without ever having to think about which one they’re touching.”

“Citi is exactly the kind of regulated banking partner the digital asset economy needs to move from experimentation to everyday commerce,” said Brett Tejpaul, Head of Coinbase Institutional. “This collaboration gives Coinbase customers bank-grade fiat infrastructure on one side and Citi’s institutional clients easy, low-friction stablecoin acceptance on the other, without either side needing to build or manage a system they don’t need.”

The initiatives, launching first in the United States, are part of Citi’s broader strategy to develop end-to-end payments solutions for the digital economy. As one of the world’s largest banks, moving approximately $6 trillion daily, Citi is actively leveraging tokenization and blockchain technology to build the next generation of payments solutions. This includes digital commerce solutions Spring by Citi and BaaS, as well as the newly integrated 24/7 USD Clearing and Citi Token Services solution, which enables real-time, round-the-clock, cross-border USD payments for its clients. Citi also banks 90% of the top eCommerce companies and 15 of the world’s 20 largest FinTechs.

Both companies will continue to collaborate on additional capabilities in the coming months.

About Citi

Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States. Citi does business in more than 180 countries and jurisdictions, providing corporations, governments, investors, institutions and individuals with a broad range of financial products and services.

Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | X: @Citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi

About Coinbase

Crypto creates economic freedom by ensuring that people can participate fairly in the economy, and Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) is on a mission to increase economic freedom for more than 1 billion people. We’re updating the century-old financial system by providing a trusted platform that makes it easy for people and institutions to engage with crypto assets, including trading, staking, safekeeping, spending, and fast, free global transfers. We also provide critical infrastructure for onchain activity and support builders who share our vision that onchain is the new online. And together with the crypto community, we advocate for responsible rules to make the benefits of crypto available around the world.

Additional information may be found at: www.coinbase.com | X: @coinbase | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coinbase | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/coinbase

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