Citi has become the latest traditional financial services giant to invest in the stablecoin infrastructure platform BVNK. The amount of the investment, made through Citi Ventures, has not been disclosed. This move follows a similar strategic investment from Visa and a $50 million Series B funding round for London-based BVNK.
The adoption of stablecoins is rapidly increasing, with a projected $27 trillion in total transaction volume globally across 1.25 billion transactions in 2024, according to analysis from Visa. As a licensed electronic money institution in the UK and Europe, BVNK offers named IBANs for EUR and GBP, along with access to payment schemes such as Sepa, Sepa Instant, and Faster Payments, enabling merchants to efficiently send and receive payments to suppliers and partners.
The firm processes over $20 billion annually for global enterprises and payment service providers, including Worldpay, Flywire, and dLocal. Arvind Purushotham, head of Citi Ventures, commented, “Stablecoins are seeing increased interest for the settlement of on-chain and crypto asset transactions. We were impressed by BVNK’s enterprise-grade infrastructure and their proven track record.”