Citi is working with Coinbase to build stablecoin payment systems for its corporate and institutional clients, according to a press announcement on Monday.

The move aims to solve the long‑standing problem of slow and expensive money transfers in traditional banking, especially across borders.

The partnership focuses on making it easier for Citi’s clients to move funds between crypto and fiat in both directions. The goal is faster settlement, lower friction, and fewer hoops to jump through when sending large sums.

This comes after years in which major banks publicly warned about crypto risks while quietly studying blockchain behind the scenes.

Now that stablecoins have become widely used for real‑world payments, the same institutions are pushing to integrate them. The plan here is not retail hype. It is infrastructure.

Citi is responding to corporate clients who want 24/7 movement of funds instead of waiting hours, days, or sometimes weeks for transfers through ACH and wire systems that still operate like it is the 1980s.

Citi explores stablecoin transactions for clients

Debopama Sen, head of payments for Services at Citi, said the bank’s clients are asking for “programmability and conditional payments and other cost and speed and efficiency aspects” along with around‑the‑clock payment processing.

She said Citi is “exploring solutions to really enable on‑chain stablecoin payments for our clients” in the coming months. According to Debopama, “Stablecoins will be another enabler in the digital payment ecosystem and it’ll help grow the space, it’ll help grow functionality for our clients.”

Stablecoins have become one of the most widely adopted use cases for digital assets. Citi analyst Ronit Ghose, who leads the bank’s “Future of Finance” research group, projects the stablecoin market could grow to over $1 trillion in the next five years, up from about $300 billion today.

This shift is driven by real business use. Companies are using stablecoins to pay suppliers, settle invoices, and shift capital across borders without waiting for correspondent banks to clear each step in the chain.

This collaboration follows Citi’s earlier rollout of a blockchain platform that lets clients transfer tokenized deposits within the bank’s own network at any time of day.

The new partnership extends that concept beyond the bank’s internal system and into broader settlement flows using stablecoins on public or permissioned blockchain rails.

Coinbase infrastructure supports banking demand

Coinbase works with more than 250 banks and financial institutions globally. Brian Foster, global head of crypto‑as‑a‑service at Coinbase, said the company has spent years developing the infrastructure that banks now want access to. “Coinbase has spent years developing very specialized infrastructure,” Foster said.

Banks, brokers, and fintechs want services including custody, staking, payments, spot trading, and derivatives trading. The growth of stablecoin payments, rising demand for tokenized assets, and interest in crypto ETFs have all contributed to higher institutional involvement.

Stablecoin payments have accelerated since July, when President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law. The act requires stablecoin issuers to back tokens with liquid assets such as Treasury bills and establishes a federal regulatory framework.

Since then, usage has surged. Over $10 billion was moved through stablecoins in August for goods, services, and transfers, compared to $6 billion in February and more than double the level from August 2024, according to Artemis, a blockchain analytics firm.

At the current pace, stablecoin payments could reach $122 billion a year. Artemis data scientist Andrew Van Aken said companies are tired of slow international banking chains.

Businesses making average payments of $250,000 are turning to stablecoins for speed.“We certainly think it has had an incremental impact,” Van Aken said about the Genius Act’s effect. He added that yield opportunities and faster capital movement also make stablecoins appealing.

“As stable coins prove to be better money, that will only accelerate people’s trust in it and continue the growth,” he said.

Banks have noticed. Zelle plans to expand its money movement services internationally and will use stablecoins for cross‑border transfers.

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