Citigroup and Coinbase announced a partnership aimed at enabling institutional clients to deposit and withdraw fiat currency through Coinbase, and explore stable-coin-based payment solutions. The collaboration marks an important step in bridging traditional banking and digital-asset ecosystems and may lower barriers to crypto-market entry for large financial institutions. The deal comes amid a regulatory-friendly U.S. environment for crypto, increasing interest among banks and asset-managers in crypto-payments interoperability.