Citi Joins Visa in Backing Stablecoin Payments Company BVNK

The venture arm of the U.S. multinational bank Citigroup (C) made a strategic investment in stablecoin payments platform BVNK, the companies announced on Thursday.

Citi Ventures joins Visa (V) in backing BVNK, after the payments giant made its own strategic investment in the company in May this year.

The companies have not disclosed the size of the investment.

The growth of the stablecoin sector as been one of the standout trends in the digital asset industry over the last year, helped in part by the introduction of formal regulatory regimes in major jurisdictions such as the U.S. and Hong Kong.

This has provided a tailwind to investment from the biggest names in the traditional financial (TradFi) world such as Citi and Visa.

BVNK processes over $20 billion in payments annually and counts Worldpay, Flywire and dLocal among its clients, according to Thursday's announcement.

"Stablecoins are seeing increased interest in use for settlement of on-chain and crypto asset transactions," Citi Ventures head Arvind Purushotham said.