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 Cointelegraph’s report published on November 10, 2026, at 01:48:35 UTC+08:00.
The service accepts Circle’s dollar-backed USDC on Ethereum through Coinbase Payments products. Payments are automatically converted into US dollars and deposited into designated PNC accounts. Businesses can therefore accept stablecoin payments without holding the tokens themselves.
Payment efficiency remains an aim, not a measured result
PNC said the pilot aims to give clients faster access to funds and improve cross-border payment efficiency. But 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.
Those omissions limit any assessment of the service’s cost or speed. The documented development is a limited payment-acceptance pilot—not evidence of measured improvements in settlement performance.
An extension of PNC’s Coinbase partnership
The pilot builds on an agreement established in July 2025. Under that partnership, PNC agreed to offer cryptocurrency services using Coinbase’s infrastructure while providing banking services to the exchange. The relationship subsequently led to Bitcoin trading for eligible PNC Private Bank clients in December.
PNC’s initiative follows a similar move by 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. Both arrangements connect stablecoin acceptance with conversion into conventional money; PNC’s pilot specifically routes the resulting dollars into designated PNC accounts.
Stablecoin market context
According to DefiLlama data cited in the report, USDC was the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization at $70.5 billion, behind Tether’s USDT at $176.8 billion. The total stablecoin market stood at around $290.8 billion on Monday.
The pilot adds a corporate payment use case for USDC. The report does not establish an effect on crypto prices, trading liquidity or the broader market cycle.
