Citi and Coinbase expand deal to let businesses accept stablecoins

Citi and Coinbase said on Monday they will let businesses accept stablecoin payments and receive the money as ordinary dollars. It is a clear sign that a major Wall Street bank wants a role in moving crypto for its corporate clients.

Both companies laid out the plan in a joint press release dated September 28, 2026 in New York. They described two projects, both starting in the United States.

This is not the first tie-up between the two. Coinbase and Citi first announced a digital assets partnership in October 2025, aimed at fiat-to-crypto payment infrastructure, according to The Block. Monday's news builds on that earlier work and points it at corporate payments.

What Citi and Coinbase actually announced

One project sits on the merchant side. Through Spring by Citi, the bank's payment acceptance service, business clients will be able to take stablecoins at checkout. Coinbase Payments handles the crypto rails. The stablecoin is turned into fiat right away, and Citi settles the money as the bank of record. A shopper could pay in a digital dollar. The merchant still sees regular dollars land in its account, much like a card payment that clears into a bank balance.

A second project runs the other way. Coinbase picked Citi's Virtual Account Wallet, part of the bank's banking-as-a-service unit, to power a product called Coinbase Virtual Accounts. That setup gives businesses bank-account-like features and can convert incoming fiat into stablecoins automatically.

"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," said Alec Lovett, Coinbase's head of infrastructure product, in the release.

What is live today, and what is not

Not much, yet. The two firms did not give a launch date for a finished product. They did not disclose how much the deal is worth or how any revenue gets split. Details are thin. The release said only that the companies will keep working on more features in the coming months.

That gap matters. A framework agreement is not a running service. Businesses cannot switch this on today. Shahmir Khaliq, Citi's head of services, cast the deal as part of the bank's wider services strategy, but the concrete parts remain plans rather than products for now.

Why banks are warming to stablecoins

Stablecoins are tokens meant to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar each, and they now settle a large share of on-chain payments. Citi is not the first big financial name to reach for them. Payments companies have spent 2026 wiring the tokens into everyday flows, and the trend has pulled in card networks and fintechs alike.

BTC Newz has tracked that shift, including how stablecoin settlement works and why SoFi moved billions onto it. US rules are catching up too, after Congress passed a stablecoin law that regulators are still turning into detailed rulebooks under the GENIUS Act.

"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," said Brett Tejpaul, head of Coinbase Institutional.

What to watch

A launch date is the next real test. Look for the first live merchants on Spring by Citi and the first businesses running Coinbase Virtual Accounts. Watch which stablecoins the service supports, and whether it stays in the United States or moves abroad. Terms stayed secret. So any numbers on volume or fees will be worth checking against what the two companies actually publish.