PNC Bank (PNC) is partnering with Coinbase (Coin) to provide institutional and bank clients with access to cryptocurrency services, the company said Tuesday.
This collaboration uses Coinbase’s “Crypto-as-a-Service” infrastructure to enable PNC clients to safely buy and sell digital assets. PNC also provides banking services to Coinbase, deepening the operational relationship between the two companies.
“The partnership with Coinbase accelerates our ability to bring innovative and cryptocurrency solutions to our clients,” PNC CEO William Demchak said in a statement. “This collaboration will meet the growing demand for secure, streamlined access to digital assets on PNC’s trustworthy platform.”
Coinbase is expanding its enterprise services to banks and financial institutions in interest in crypto rebound. The Crypto-as-a-Service platform provides back-end tools for compliance, custody and trading. This is a costly and time-consuming component for traditional banks to build in-house.
The partnership, which is expected to be created after 2021, will provide PNC with a ready-made path to Crypto without directly detaining assets, registering them as crypto brokers, or avoiding regulatory complexity. Coinbase has gained access to one of the largest banks in the United States and its vast network of institutional customers.
“PNC is a market leader in providing best-in-class products for our clients,” said Brett Tejpaul, Head of Coinbase Institutional. “We are excited to be able to use an uncompromising security-based platform to help us enter the digital asset market.”
The deal comes amid growing demand for regulated crypto services among large financial players, as lawmakers are closer to passing clearer rules for digital assets. While some banks offer crypto custody or tokenization pilots, few have enabled the full trading capabilities of their clients through key partners.
Serving businesses, government and retail clients across the country, PNC will become one of the largest US banks to employ large-scale crypto services. The rollout timeline has not been revealed yet, but the companies have framed the initiative as a long-term effort to build a resilient, compliant infrastructure for the digital asset economy.
