Citi and Coinbase have rolled out a partnership that lets Citi business clients accept stablecoin payments without ever holding tokens, opening a crypto account, or seeing a wallet address. Coinbase handles the conversion of stablecoins into dollars behind the scenes, while Citi deposits the money like any other payment. In the reverse direction, companies building on Coinbase can open bank-like accounts powered by Citi’s banking software, with incoming dollars automatically converted into stablecoins.
The point is abstraction: a business adds a payment option, and somewhere in the plumbing a stablecoin settles in seconds instead of a two-day wire. Coinbase says more than 150 million people globally hold stablecoins, creating a way for merchants to accept money from them without asking customers to enter the crypto world.
The broader market was mixed but leaning positive. Bitcoin traded near $84.4k, up about 2%, while Ethereum rose 3% to $2,730. Strategy bought 1,665 BTC for $142.7 million at an average price of $85,681, taking its holdings to a record 847,666 BTC. Bitmine purchased 17,362 ETH for roughly $47 million, lifting its stake to 4.9% of Ethereum supply. Chainlink released CCIP 2.0, allowing companies to add custom security checks to cross-chain transfers. Senate Democrats called Tether a ‘significant financial lifeline’ for Iran, saying 84% of 846 sanctioned wallets used USDT; Tether said it helped freeze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked tokens this year.
