PNC Bank, the eighth-largest US bank by assets, launched a limited pilot allowing eligible corporate and institutional clients to receive USDC payments through Coinbase, according to a Cointelegraph report published on November 10, 2026, at 01:48:35 UTC+08:00.
From USDC payment to bank deposit
The pilot accepts USDC—a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle—on Ethereum using Coinbase Payments products. Incoming payments are automatically converted into dollars and deposited into designated PNC accounts.
For participating businesses, the distinction is straightforward: customers can pay in USDC, while the business receives dollars in its bank account without having to hold the stablecoin.
PNC said the service aims to give businesses faster access to funds and improve cross-border payment efficiency. However, the bank did not disclose fees, settlement-time benchmarks or the number of participating clients. It had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for additional details by publication time, leaving the pilot’s cost and speed unquantified in the report.
A further step in the Coinbase partnership
The pilot builds on an agreement established in July 2025. Under that partnership, PNC agreed to offer cryptocurrency services through Coinbase’s infrastructure while providing banking services to the exchange. The partnership subsequently led to Bitcoin trading for eligible PNC Private Bank clients in December.
PNC’s approach follows a similar initiative at Citi. In September, Citi expanded its Coinbase partnership to let institutional clients accept stablecoin payments through Spring by Citi, with Coinbase converting those payments into fiat currency.
At the time of the report, DefiLlama data put USDC’s market capitalization at $70.5 billion, making it the second-largest stablecoin behind Tether’s USDT at $176.8 billion. The total stablecoin market stood at around $290.8 billion on Monday.