Coinbase and Marqeta are expanding their partnership to power stablecoin-backed payment cards for enterprise customers. The two companies announced the deal on October 16, 2026.
The pitch is simple. A business holds stablecoins, its cardholders swipe at a regular merchant, and the shop never has to know crypto was involved.
Stablecoins are tokens built to track the value of a traditional currency. They have spent years as a tool for traders. This deal aims to make them something an accounts payable team might actually use.
Who does what
Coinbase takes custody of the stablecoin balances. It will also handle conversion into fiat currency and run on-chain settlement through Base, its own blockchain.
Marqeta covers the traditional card side. It will issue the cards and process payments. It will also manage the relationships with financial institutions and card networks.
The result for cardholders is spending power at any merchant that accepts traditional cards. The stablecoin account sits behind the card, and the checkout counter sees a normal transaction.
One feature stands out: programs built on the partnership will support 24/7 funding. Traditional banking rails tend to keep business hours. Stablecoins do not, and this setup lets companies top up card programs whenever they need to.
Neither company disclosed volume or revenue figures tied to the expanded deal.
A reunion, not a first date
This is not the first time these two companies have worked together. Marqeta powered the original launch of Coinbase’s crypto spending card back in 2020-2021.
That earlier product let individual Coinbase users spend their crypto holdings. The new arrangement moves the relationship up the food chain, from consumers to enterprises.
Marqeta brings serious scale to the table. The company processed nearly $400 billion in payments volume in 2025. It operates in over 40 countries.
The timing also lines up with momentum on Marqeta’s side. The company’s average deal size surged in 2026, which points to enterprises asking for more flexible payment setups.
Marqeta is targeting two very different audiences with this expansion. One is crypto-native companies that already hold digital assets. The other is traditional firms that want to fold those assets into their everyday fiat payment operations.
What this means for payments and the companies involved
For Coinbase, the deal deepens Base’s role as real payment infrastructure. Settlement activity from enterprise card programs could give its blockchain a steady, practical use case beyond trading.
For Marqeta, the expansion is a bid to grow its presence in the stablecoin market.
There are risks worth keeping in mind. Stablecoin payments depend on custody, conversion, and settlement all working smoothly at once. A weak link in that chain affects the cardholder experience directly, and enterprise customers tend to have little patience for payment hiccups.
Regulatory treatment of stablecoins also varies across countries. Operating in over 40 markets means navigating a patchwork of rules for a product that mixes crypto and traditional finance.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.