Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said Wednesday (Dec. 3) that his firm is engaged in pilot programs to test stablecoins, cryptocurrency custody, and trading with some of the largest U.S. banks.
“The best banks are embracing this as an opportunity,” Armstrong said at the New York Times DealBook Summit, as reported by CoinDesk on Wednesday. “It’s the ones that are fighting it, they’re going to get left behind.”
Armstrong did not identify the banks, the report said.
Coinbase has also announced other partnerships with banks in recent months.
The company said in October that it intended to work with Citi to provide digital asset payment capabilities for the bank’s clients, beginning with its institutional clients and potentially extending to its other international clients.
“This partnership is one step forward to make digital currency a trusted and useful part of everyday life,” Coinbase said in a blog post at the time. “By working with Citi and other leading firms around the world, asset managers seeking to enter this new digital space have access to systems that will help them run effectively. With our customers and partners at the forefront of transformation, we’re making it possible for financial institutions across the spectrum to process digital assets in a manner that is secure, compliant, and scalable.”
In July, Coinbase and JPMorgan Chase announced they were teaming up to build a feature that will let customers use their Chase credit cards to fund their Coinbase accounts, making it more convenient for their combined customers to purchase cryptocurrency.
They also said they would enable customers to link their Chase bank accounts directly to Coinbase wallets via JPMorgan’s API and use points from Chase’s rewards program, Chase Ultimate Rewards, to fund their Coinbase account.
Joining together, we are increasing choice and reducing the barrier to entry for people to use financial services on chain,” Max Branzburg, head of Consumer at Business Products at Coinbase, said in a statement at the time.
Also this month, Coinbase announced a partnership with PNC Bank to enable the bank’s clients to buy, hold , and sell cryptocurrencies.
The firms said this collaboration is part of a new relationship that includes PNC gaining access to other crypto financial products for its clients and offering “certain” banking services to Coinbase.
