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The banking behemoth Citi has brought Coinbase on board to help its institutional clients convert fiat currency to crypto.
Citi announced the collaboration with the top US crypto exchange on Monday, noting the partnership would focus on payment orchestration and fiat pay-ins/pay-outs, “supporting Coinbase’s on/off-ramps.”
Debopama Sen, the head of payments at Citi’s Services division, says the new venture is the result of a fast-changing financial landscape.
“With more than 300 payment clearing networks across 94 markets globally, we see collaborating with Coinbase as a natural extension of our ‘network of networks’ approach, further supporting our clients to make payments as if there were no borders.”
Citi appears to be diving full force into the crypto sector: Earlier this month, one of the bank’s executives, Biswarup Chatterjee, told CNBC that the firm had been working on a crypto custody product for several years.
The product, which is targeting a 2026 launch date, would involve Citi holding crypto, according to Chatterjee, the global head of partnerships and innovation at Citi Services.
“We have various kinds of explorations… and we’re hoping that in the next few quarters, we can come to market with a credible custody solution that we can offer to our asset managers and other clients…
We may have certain solutions that are completely designed and built in-house that are targeted towards certain assets and certain segments of our clients, whereas we may use a … third-party, lightweight, nimble solution for other kind of assets…
So we’re not currently ruling out anything.”
