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From “good luck with that” to bank partnership
Brian Armstrong says Coinbase has come a long way since 2012 — back when getting a bank to cooperate was, in his words, nearly impossible. Fast-forward to now, and Citi is teaming up with Coinbase to help institutional clients accept stablecoin payments at checkout and move money around with a lot less friction.
That’s not just a nice PR moment. It’s a signal that stablecoins are inching further into the mainstream banking stack, and Coinbase is right in the middle of it. If you’re an investor, that means Coinbase’s institutional payments story is getting a little less “crypto experiment” and a little more “how the plumbing gets built.”
Why Wall Street cares
Coinbase has been leaning hard into stablecoins because they’re one of the company’s more important revenue engines. The company also said USDC held in Coinbase products hit a record $20 billion in Q2, which is the kind of number that tells you this isn’t just digital confetti anymore.
- Citi’s merchant-processing clients can accept stablecoin payments from customers.
- Coinbase customers can tap Citi banking capabilities while cash gets converted into stablecoins automatically.
- Coinbase still shares reserve income tied to USDC with Circle, so the stablecoin economy is a real ecosystem, not a one-company party.
Big picture
This is the kind of partnership that makes crypto feel less like the Wild West and more like a new neighborhood in the financial district. For Coinbase, that’s exactly the point: if stablecoins keep becoming useful instead of merely trendy, the company’s moat gets a little wider.