Coinbase is partnering with financial services provider Moov to increase access to stablecoin capabilities such as acceptance, settlement and real-time funding for community banks and credit unions ahead of a key vote on crypto legislation in the U.S. Senate next week.
The partnership, shared exclusively with CNBC, comes just days before a crucial preliminary vote on the Senate floor to advance the Clarity Act. The bill, which has languished in Senate limbo for months, would set up a first-of-its-kind regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other types of digital assets.
Coinbase and other parts of the crypto industry have pushed hard for the Senate to pass the bill. But the Clarity Act has run into opposition from banks, which are opposed to interest-like rewards offered on crypto exchanges and warn they could cause deposit flight from community banks and credit unions. The new partnership may help bridge the divide between community banks and crypto.
Under the agreement, Coinbase will provide digital asset infrastructure while Moov will connect that infrastructure to its payment systems that financial institutions and their customers already use — delivering stablecoin capabilities and payment rails to community banks. Moov already services more than 1,000 community banks and credit unions across the U.S., according to a press release announcing the partnership, connecting them to card acquiring and issuing and real-time payment rails.
"Community banks and credit unions have witnessed their customers use digital assets for years," said Ryan VanGrack, vice chair and head of corporate affairs at Coinbase. "Through our partnership with Moov, Coinbase is delivering the regulated infrastructure they need to offer these services directly — embedded right into their existing systems."
Wade Arnold, co-founder and CEO of Moov, said, "Business customers of community institutions are already being asked to accept stablecoins, and today they go outside their institution to do it."
"We built this so the answer comes from their primary FI instead. Merchants need acceptance and disbursement now. What comes next is bigger: funding that doesn't stop for weekends or holidays, because the rail doesn't close. Institutions that add this now will be positioned for both," he said.
Moov counts Citizens Bank as one of its existing customers. Jill Castilla, chairman, president and CEO of Oklahoma-based Citizens Bank of Edmond, said in a statement that the bank's "small business customers are looking for ways to lower interchange costs and get paid faster."
The Clarity Act's fate on the Senate floor, meanwhile, remains far from certain. The bill needs at least 60 votes in the Senate to advance, and it's unclear if it currently has the support. Democrats have expressed concern over proposed ethics language in the bill that they say doesn't go far enough to prevent public officials from profiting from crypto. And some Republicans are wary of the bill's potential impacts on community banks.
The bill is scheduled to come to a preliminary vote next Tuesday.
