Citigroup Mulls Stablecoin Payments

Citigroup is reportedly considering getting involved in stablecoins.

The bank is exploring providing stablecoin-powered payments as well as custody services for the assets that back stablecoins and crypto-related investment products, Biswarup Chatterjee, global head of partnerships and innovation for Citigroup’s services division, told Reuters in a report posted Thursday (Aug. 14).

Chatterjee also reiterated Citigroup’s earlier announcement that it is considering issuing its own stablecoin, according to the report.

The bank currently offers a blockchain-based solution that uses tokenized U.S. dollars to make transfers between accounts in New York, London and Hong Kong, per the report.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser signaled during a July earnings call that the bank is getting serious about digital assets, PYMNTS reported at the time.

Pointing to the Citi Token Services (CTS) platform, which enables real-time treasury and liquidity management using tokenized representations of fiat currency on blockchain, Fraser said that this is a “superior offering for our corporate clients” and that Citi aims to make these systems consumer- and client-facing, scalable and compliant with emerging U.S. regulatory frameworks.

Referring to the new U.S. stablecoin law, Fraser said: “The GENIUS Act is something that we are excited about. It has been hard for us to participate on a level playing field … clients want multi-asset, always-on, cross-border payments for financing and liquidity.”

It was reported in May that Citi predicted that regulatory efforts promoting the integration of dollar-pegged stablecoins into the mainstream economy might make the stablecoin market surpass the larger cryptocurrency ecosystem.

“We’re looking at the integration of stablecoins into what you call the mainstream economy,” Ronit Ghose, the global head of Citi Institute’s Future Finance think tank, told CoinDesk at the time. “For example, stablecoins could be the cash leg for tokenized financial assets, or for payments by SMEs and large corporates.”

JPMorgan executives also said during a July earnings call that the bank has placed stablecoin infrastructure at the center of its long-term strategy for cross-border payments, corporate treasury modernization and competitive differentiation.

“We’re going to be involved in both JPMorgan deposit coin and stablecoins,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said. He said the bank would have to get involved more fully in the stablecoin industry as FinTechs make headwind in the space.