Citi and Coinbase expanded their partnership on September 28, 2026, linking Citi’s corporate banking, merchant-processing and virtual-account infrastructure with Coinbase’s stablecoin conversion and blockchain settlement capabilities. Citi’s institutional clients and merchants can accept stablecoin payments without opening crypto accounts, managing wallets, taking custody of tokens or holding crypto on their balance sheets; Coinbase converts the assets into fiat, and Citi settles proceeds as the bank of record. Coinbase businesses can use Citi-powered virtual accounts that provide bank-account-like functionality and automatically convert incoming dollars into stablecoins where appropriate. Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission registered Coinbase Clearing LLC as a derivatives clearing organization, completing Coinbase’s U.S. structure across contract listing, futures brokerage and clearing. The clearinghouse can directly clear fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps using USDC collateral and 24/7 settlement, while margined and leveraged products remain with external partners. Coinbase said the approval brings it closer to operating vertically integrated derivatives infrastructure, as competition grows to bring perpetual futures, crypto options and related products into regulated U.S. markets. CME has moved toward challenging the CFTC over the classification of certain crypto perpetual products.