Citigroup is on track to potentially become one of the first major banks on Wall Street to offer stablecoin payment services, representing a significant step towards the broader adoption of tokenized dollars after the GENIUS Act’s passage earlier this year.
As reported by Bloomberg, Citi has teamed up with the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to enhance its digital asset capabilities, with an initial focus on streamlining the process for clients to transfer funds between fiat and cryptocurrency.
Debopama Sen, head of payments at Citi, noted that the bank’s clients are increasingly requesting programmability, conditional payments, and enhanced speed and efficiency, along with 24/7 access to payment services.
Sen mentioned that Citi is “exploring solutions to enable on-chain stablecoin payments for our clients” in the near term.
“Stablecoins will serve as another facilitator in the digital payment landscape, fostering growth in the sector and enhancing functionality for our clients,” Sen stated.
Citi’s focus on stablecoins comes as no surprise. These developments follow a recent significant increase in the bank’s projections for the digital dollar market, predicting that by 2030, the stablecoin market could reach $4 trillion, up from approximately $315 billion currently.
Related: Tether’s stablecoin sector poised for another year of record profitability
Wall Street banks are investing in stablecoins
The enactment of the US GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins and is set to begin in early 2027, has instilled a sense of urgency among major banks to pursue their own stablecoin initiatives.
Citigroup joins a growing number of Wall Street firms, including JPMorgan and Bank of America, that are in the early phases of developing services related to stablecoins. Notably, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan and a long-time skeptic of cryptocurrency, recently expressed to shareholders that the bank “intends to be engaged” in stablecoin development.
Investor excitement is rising in parallel with institutional interest. Circle, the issuer of USDC (USDC) — the second-largest dollar-pegged stablecoin — had a successful public offering earlier this year, with its stock climbing 167% on its first trading day.
Circle now has a market cap of approximately $35 billion.
Related: Tokenized money market funds are emerging as Wall Street’s solution to stablecoins
