Coinbase Taps PNC Bank to Expand Crypto Offerings: Details

PNC Bank has partnered with Coinbase to provide safe crypto trading and custody solutions to its banking and institutional customers.

The partnership uses crypto exchange’s Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) infrastructure to enable seamless access to digital assets. PNC would be the biggest U.S. bank to scale up crypto trading, marking a change in institutional finance.

PNC Partnership With Coinbase Unlocks Crypto Access

The partnership gives PNC 9 million clients the ability to buy, hold, and sell crypto using their existing PNC accounts. PNC CEO William Demchak said the partnership weighed on the rising need for safe, extendable access to digital assets.

He stressed that Coinbase’s backend infrastructure is as secure and compliant as possible without requiring PNC to take custody of the assets directly.

Coinbase CaaS provides critical sharing of custody, trading, and compliance tools. The internal development of these services would cost a conventional bank years and huge capital.

The partnership allows PNC to offer fully compliant crypto access without regulatory overreach. Demchak said in the official release,

Coinbase Gains Institutional Reach With PNC Integration

For Coinbase, the partnership offers unprecedented institutional expansion. PNC has more than 549 billion under management, and it is the seventh largest bank in the United States.

The new partnership with PNC will enable the exchange to directly reach a broader network of corporate, governmental, and wealth management clients.

Brett Tejpaul, the head of institutional finance at Coinbase, called the deal a first of its kind that would strengthen ties between traditional finance and the crypto sphere. Brett added:

The leading crypto exchange has been positioning itself as the core infrastructure for institutional crypto adoption.

Through its CaaS platform, the exchange offers digital asset services via API. It allows the traditional financial institutions to provide crypto without becoming brokers or custodians.

Such a modular solution saves on regulatory costs with unit deployment speed.

Bank Adoption Continues to Accelerate

PNC’s crypto integration comes amid a broader wave of institutional adoption. JPMorgan is piloting crypto-backed loans while BlackRock has embraced Bitcoin ETFs.

Now, PNC joined this movement by offering direct client trading, going beyond custody or passive exposure.

Notably, this partnership has been years in the making. Reports from 2021 indicated early planning between the exchange and PNC.

Such a large lead time ensured those two companies could get through compliance, licensing, and infrastructure requirements.

The deal comes as new U.S. rules on custody and disclosures aim to boost bank adoption of digital assets.

PNC’s early move could set the template for other large institutions seeking to enter crypto in a regulated, secure way.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reaffirmed the importance of accessibility. In an X post, he stressed that the less cumbersome it is to hold and trade crypto, the quicker its global adoption would increase.

Armstrong also noted that the exchange is expanding into tokenization, capital formation, and enterprise-grade finance tools, positioning the platform as the “Amazon of crypto.”

CaaS Model Offers Scalable, Secure Crypto Deployment

The latest collaboration makes use of a CaaS platform to eradicate friction in the deployment of cryptocurrency.

By outsourcing its crypto-backend to the crypto exchange, PNC avoids high-risk infrastructure. It also avoids expensive compliance architecture and crypto licensing.

PNC clients will be communicating directly with crypto using their PNC interfaces instead. Coinbase will handle custody, trade execution, and regulatory processes.

The model has picked up as monetary institutions seek to enter the cryptocurrency industry in compliant, scalable applications.

With PNC onboard, Coinbase has confirmed its lead position in crypto infrastructure for institutions.

Although there is still no official launch date, both companies talked of the initiative as a long-term integration. It will introduce the offering to a small number of institutional and wealth clients first before rolling it out later.