Citi Expands Coinbase Partnership for Stablecoin Payments, Launches Virtual Accounts

Citigroup Inc. (C) announced Monday an expanded partnership with Coinbase (COIN) to bridge traditional banking and digital asset payments for corporate and retail customers, launching first in the United States. The deal introduces Coinbase Virtual Accounts, powered by Citi's Virtual Account Wallet, enabling Coinbase customers to access bank-account-like functionality with fiat automatically converted into stablecoins. Citi institutional clients will also gain the ability to accept stablecoin payments at checkout via the Spring by Citi platform, with Coinbase Payments handling conversion into fiat. Citi, which processes approximately $6 trillion in daily transactions, said the initiatives form part of its broader digital assets strategy leveraging tokenization and blockchain to build next-generation payments infrastructure linking cash management, securities and collateral ecosystems. On the NYSE, Citigroup shares were down 1.36% at $132.46.