PNC Bank, which ranks among the top 80 U.S. banks by total assets, has launched a limited pilot program. Certain institutional and corporate clients can now accept USDC payments through the Coinbase platform.
This pilot uses Circle’s USDC stablecoin, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar and operates on the Ethereum network. Thanks to Coinbase Payments tools, all incoming funds are automatically converted to dollars and credited to PNC accounts. This is very convenient for companies, as they can accept stablecoins without having to hold them on their balance sheets.
The bank explained that this service is designed to simplify cross-border payments and help businesses gain faster access to capital. However, details regarding fees, settlement times, or the number of project participants have not yet been disclosed. At the time of publication, PNC representatives had not provided Cointelegraph with any additional comments.
This pilot project is a continuation of a collaboration that began back in July 2025. At that time, PNC decided to launch crypto services based on Coinbase’s infrastructure, acting as the exchange’s banking partner. By December, this had already yielded results: PNC Private Bank clients who met certain criteria gained the ability to trade Bitcoin.
Incidentally, PNC isn’t the only one moving in this direction. Citi has a similar project. In September, the bank expanded its partnership with Coinbase so that institutional clients could receive payments in stablecoins through the Spring by Citi system, where Coinbase handles the conversion to fiat.
According to figures from DefiLlama, USDC currently ranks second among stablecoins with a market capitalization of $70.5 billion. Tether’s USDT leads the pack with a market capitalization of $176.8 billion. Overall, the entire stablecoin market was valued at approximately $290.8 billion on Monday.