Key Highlights
- Nium and Coinbase partnered to enable USDC payments across Nium’s global network in over 190 countries.
- Businesses can use USDC and convert it to local currency on a single platform.
- The system also allows USDC to be used for card payments, letting businesses spend their stablecoin at any merchants wherever cards are accepted.
Nium, a real-time payment platform based in Singapore, today announced that it has teamed up with crypto exchange Coinbase to roll out support for USDC across its global payments system.
According to the official announcement, the integration is already live for clients, meaning businesses can now send, receive, and settle transactions using USDC within the same platform they use for fiat payments.
One platform for crypto and fiat
Coinbase provides the core infrastructure, including wallets, liquidity, and regulated custody, while Nium connects these functions to its global payment network, which spans more than 190 countries and over 40 licenses.
Through this setup, companies using Nium can manage both digital and traditional currencies in one place. They can receive USDC, hold it, or convert it into fiat for payouts without switching platforms.
The system also allows stablecoin-to-fiat conversion at the point of payment, allowing funds to move directly into local bank accounts when needed. This removes the extra steps usually involved in cross-border settlement.
Businesses can also fund payouts using USDC instead of holding large pre-funded balances in different regions, supporting what is known as just-in-time liquidity, where money is deployed only when required rather than sitting idle across accounts in multiple countries.
Spending USDC with cards
The system also connects to card payments. The firm said that businesses holding USDC can spend their funds using cards, enabling use at physical and online merchants wherever card payments are accepted.
Coinbase handles the back-end system that makes this work. The company’s APIs power it, including handing custody and wallet services, while Nium handles distribution across global payment corridors. Together, both systems combine on-chain infrastructure with traditional financial rails, creating a single operational flow for international money movement.
Prajit Nanu, CEO and Founder of Nium, commented on the collaboration, stating, “The future of money movement is multi-rail. Fiat and onchain infrastructure will increasingly work together, not in isolation. This partnership with Coinbase makes that future operational today – giving our clients a single platform to send, receive and spend stablecoins at scale ahead of a fundamental shift in how money moves.”
On the Coinbase side, Alec Lovett, Head of Infrastructure Products, said, “Stablecoins are transforming how money moves globally, and Coinbase is committed to enabling their use at an institutional scale.”
Broader context
The rollout reflects a wider movement in financial systems where stablecoins are moving beyond trading use and into core payment operations. Instead of relying heavily on slow bank transfers or holding money in many countries, companies can now use one system to handle everything.
Nium and Coinbase position this integration as a bridge between digital asset networks and traditional banking infrastructure, with USDC acting as the settlement layer across global payment flows.
This development also comes as Circle, the issuer of USDC, faces legal issues for how it handled the recent exploit on Drift protocol, which resulted in a $280 million loss.
Also Read: ARK Invest Sells Circle Shares as USDC Lawsuit Heats Up
