Coinbase and Marqeta have expanded their existing partnership to issue stablecoin-backed payment cards for enterprise customers, according to an announcement made October 16. Coinbase will provide custody and fiat conversion services, while Base handles onchain settlement and Marqeta manages card issuance and processing.
The partnership builds on a prior relationship between Coinbase and Marqeta dating to 2020-2021, when they first launched the Coinbase Card, a consumer product that converts crypto to fiat at point of sale. This expansion narrows the scope to enterprise customers and ties settlement directly to stablecoins held on Base, Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network.
The division of labor mirrors the structure of existing crypto payment card products but routes the conversion and custody through Coinbase's infrastructure. Marqeta, a card-issuing platform that handles processing and settlement for digital payment programs, acts as the card processor. Enterprises using the product will hold stablecoins in Coinbase custody, convert them to fiat through Coinbase, and settle transactions on Base.
Coinbase has positioned Base as a settlement layer for commerce and payments since its public launch in 2023. The network processes roughly 3.7 million transactions per day as of mid-2026, making it one of the higher-traffic Ethereum layer-2s. Adding enterprise payment card rails represents a new use case beyond retail trading and decentralized finance.
Marqeta went public in 2021 and currently serves fintech platforms, digital banks, and payment networks. Its existing clients include Square, DoorDash, and Klarna. The company has previously partnered with crypto platforms on card products but has not previously integrated stablecoin-backed settlement at this scale for enterprise issuance.
Coinbase and Marqeta face competition from other stablecoin payment card initiatives, including partnerships involving Circle's USDC and traditional payment networks. Both companies are competing on infrastructure and custody rather than consumer spend volume, where friction and regulatory uncertainty remain high.
