Coinbase expands into traditional banking sector
Coinbase is expanding its stablecoin infrastructure into traditional banking, partnering with Moov and Citi to bring stablecoin payment and settlement capabilities to a wider range of institutions. The move marks a significant shift for the crypto exchange, which launched USDC in 2018 with Circle and added USDC support to Coinbase Commerce in 2019.
The partnership with Moov, a payments infrastructure provider, connects more than 1,000 community banks and credit unions to payment systems, giving Coinbase a route into smaller institutions that may lack the resources to build their own stablecoin technology stack.
The announcement does not say all these institutions will offer Coinbase’s stablecoin capabilities or specify when individual institutions will activate them. However, the partnership gives Coinbase access to established banking and payment networks, while allowing banks and businesses to integrate stablecoin payment capabilities into their existing operations without having to build the underlying infrastructure from scratch.
Coinbase also expanded its collaboration with Citi, connecting its stablecoin payments infrastructure to the bank’s institutional banking and merchant-acquiring systems. Citi, which moves approximately $6 trillion a day, connects Coinbase’s capabilities to large corporate and institutional clients.
The two partnerships approach the same strategy from opposite ends of the financial system. This infrastructure expansion gives Coinbase a potential growth avenue beyond trading revenue, which fluctuates with crypto market activity.
In a September 2026 Bloomberg interview, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the stablecoin market, valued at around $300 billion, could grow nearly tenfold by 2030. The partnerships mark a significant step in Coinbase’s efforts to expand the market for stablecoins and bring them into the mainstream financial system.
