Citigroup Partners With Coinbase for Stablecoin Payments — Barrons.com

By Ty RoushCitigroup has partnered with Coinbase to settle payments for the bank's institutional clients with stablecoin, Coinbase announced Monday.Citi's larger clients will be able to accept payments in stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar and other stabilized assets, and Coinbase will provide the underlying blockchain technology that converts the digital asset into government-issued currency, the crypto firm said.Coinbase said in a post on X that the partnership is "the next step for stablecoins becoming everyday money."Citi has expanded its token services to allow multinational clients to move their assets across the bank's network instantly. The service is live in the U.S. and six of the bank's other jurisdictions. It's the latest shift for traditional banks into cryptocurrency.Shares of Citi were unchanged Monday, and Coinbase stock rose 0.8%.SoFi Technologies announced last week that it will settle all debit- and credit-card transactions with SoFi USD, its dollar-backed stablecoin, using Mastercard's payments network. The fintech said the new program will help "bridge traditional financial systems and blockchain-based networks."Citi, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank are among a group of 21 financial institutions that are set to launch a company this year that will issue a cryptocurrency linked to the U.S. dollar in 2027. The group said it plans to expand into stablecoins pegged to other currencies, including the euro.Write to Ty Roush at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.