PNC Bank is working with Coinbase to let corporate and institutional clients receive payments in stablecoin, with eligible customers able to accept Circle's USDC token before it gets automatically converted into U.S. dollars. The service, announced Monday, will initially roll out on a limited basis through a pilot program, according to the companies.
Reuters reported the arrangement in a story carried by The Kansas City Star. Under the pilot, eligible PNC clients can receive Circle's USDC, which is automatically converted to U.S. dollars, according to Reuters. Stablecoins are pegged to currencies such as the dollar, and financial firms have been testing them for payments, Reuters reported.
A Limited Pilot Leaves Key Terms Open
PNC and Coinbase say the service will begin with a limited pilot, rather than a full rollout. Tom Lang, PNC's head of treasury management product and operations, described the effort as “Right now, this is about testing and learning with our clients and helping explore which of those potential features of the stablecoin are a benefit.”
The companies say the service could give businesses quicker access to funds and speed up cross-border transactions, according to Reuters. They have not disclosed pilot results, a start date, the number of participants, or detailed eligibility terms.
How FedNow differs
For domestic payments, the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service went live on July 20, 2023, and is available to U.S. depository institutions for instant payments through customer accounts, according to the Federal Reserve. That description does not establish that FedNow handles cross-border payments. The Federal Reserve also emphasizes that FedNow is a payment service for banks and credit unions to transfer funds for customers—not a digital currency, according to its FAQ.
A Broader Digital-Asset Relationship
Monday's announcement extends a relationship the two companies first struck in mid-2025. PNC Bank announced a strategic partnership with Coinbase in July 2025 to advance digital-asset solutions and expand banking services, according to a PNC statement posted at the time. Under that earlier deal, PNC tapped Coinbase's institutional Crypto-as-a-Service platform so bank customers could buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, while PNC said it would provide select banking services to Coinbase in return.
Coinbase's Alec Lovett, head of infrastructure products, described the pilot as part of a wider convergence between traditional finance and crypto infrastructure, Reuters reported. The pilot will test whether stablecoin payments offer benefits to PNC's business clients; the companies have not yet reported measured outcomes.
