The bank’s latest push comes through an expanded payments partnership with Coinbase, announced on Sept. 28. Coinbase selected Citi’s Virtual Account Wallet to power virtual accounts that can
The bank’s latest push comes through an expanded payments partnership with Coinbase, announced on Sept. 28. Coinbase selected Citi’s Virtual Account Wallet to power virtual accounts that can automatically convert incoming fiat into stablecoins, while Citi institutional clients will be able to accept stablecoin payments through Coinbase infrastructure.
The development lands as stablecoins become a much larger financial market. Total stablecoin capitalization climbed to about $311 billion in August, according to CoinDesk Research, putting blockchain-based dollars firmly into the hundreds-of-billions category.
Citi Is Bringing Stablecoins Into Corporate BankingThe important part of Citi’s move is not simply that another major bank is experimenting with crypto.
The new infrastructure is designed to connect ordinary corporate bank accounts with blockchain-based money more directly. Companies can receive fiat through Citi-powered accounts and convert it into stablecoins without building separate banking and crypto systems themselves.
That fits a broader trend we explored in why Wall Street banks want their own digital dollars. Banks increasingly see stablecoins as tools for 24/7 settlement, cross-border transfers and tokenized financial markets rather than purely crypto-native products.
For Ripple, that trend is both validation and competition.
Ripple Is Building Around the Same Institutional ShiftRipple has spent the past several years expanding beyond its original XRP-based cross-border payments business.
Its strategy now includes RLUSD, custody, treasury services and other infrastructure aimed at institutional finance. Coinpaper recently reported how RLUSD, FXRP and lending are changing what the XRP Ledger is used for, with RLUSD already near $2.4 billion in circulation earlier this month.
Ripple has also increasingly described itself as a broader institutional financial platform rather than only a payments company, a shift reflected in its expansion into custody, stablecoins, treasury management and prime brokerage.
