Citi has invested in stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK, the startup told CNBC on Thursday, as big U.S. banks ramp up their presence in the cryptocurrency and digital asset space.

Stablecoins are a type of digital asset pegged to a fiat currency and backed by real-world assets like bonds. The two biggest are USDC and Tether, which issues USDT.

BVNK’s core technology is effectively a payments rail to facilitate transactions in stablecoins globally, allowing customers to move money from fiat into the cryptocurrency and back.

The company declined to disclose the sum that Citi invested or its current valuation. But Chris Harmse, co-founder of BVNK, told CNBC in an interview that its valuation is higher than the $750 million that was publicly disclosed at its last funding round.

The investment was made by Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Citigroup.

Stablecoins, once just a tool for people to trade quickly in and out of other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, are now being seen as a potential key tool for cross-border transactions due to the speed to send and receive them, the low cost and 24/7 settlement.

There were nearly $9 trillion worth of stablecoin transactions over the last 12 months, according to Visa, while the current valuation of all stablecoins in existence stands at over $300 billion, Coinmarketcap data shows.

Earlier this year, the U.S. passed the GENIUS Act, a bill designed to regulate and bring more clarity to the stablecoin market.

“You are seeing with the GENIUS Act coming through, and regulatory clarity, an explosion of demand for building on top of stablecoin infrastructure,” Harmse told CNBC.

BVNK’s technology can be used by customers to pay suppliers, contractors or merchants in other countries. The company is looking to expand its customer base, including to digital-only banks or neobanks that may use stabelcoins for their core checking account, Harmse said.

The co-founder declined to get into the specifics of the company’s work with Citi as it’s “too early to announce” but noted the Wall Street bank has been bolstering its cross-border payment services.

“U.S. banks at the scale of Citi, because of the GENIUS Act, are putting their weight behind … investing in leading businesses in the space to make sure they are at forefront of this technological shift in payments,” Harmse said. 

Citi signaled its step up into crypto this year. CEO Jane Fraser said in June that the company is considering issuing its own stablecoin and is interested in offering custodian services for crypto assets.

BVNK has “dipped in and out of profitability” as the company has invested in growth, Harmse said, adding that the company is on track to be profitable next year. BVNK is also backed by Coinbase and Tiger Global.

The startup is playing in a highly-competitive space with other newcomers like Alchemy Pay and TripleA and established players like Ripple trying to get a slice of the cross-border digital money pie.

JPMorgan Chase launched its own stablecoin-like token called JPMD this year. The bank also made the decision this year to allow clients to buy bitcoin.

Banks have been looking at how to use blockchain, a technology originally developed to underpin bitcoin, to lower the cost and speed up transactions of many kinds. Part of this involves “tokenization” which broadly means the idea of issuing a digital token that represents something such as a deposit.

Bank of New York Mellon, for example, is exploring tokenized deposits. HSBC has already launched a tokenized deposit service.

OpenAI has expanded its lower-cost subscription plan, ChatGPT Go, to 16 more countries across Asia, company head Nick Turley announced Thursday.

“Making ChatGPT more affordable has been a key ask from users,” said Turley in a post on social media platform X in August.

The artificial intelligence company launched ChatGPT Go in India and Indonesia earlier this year.

The rollout brings OpenAI’s cheapest plan to users across a total of 18 Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Vietnam.

The expansion aims to increase the accessibility of the company’s latest model GPT-5, OpenAI said on its website.

ChatGPT Go includes all features in the free version, as well as extended access to image generation, file uploads, advanced data analysis and other functions. It also includes higher usage limits than the free plan for core chat and tools, according to OpenAI.

ChatGPT Go launched in India and Indonesia at a monthly fee of 399 rupees (about $4.50) and 75,000 rupiah (about $4.53), respectively — which are a fraction of the price of the company’s other subscription plans. The cost of the plan in other Asian markets may differ.

OpenAI currently has two other paid personal plans: ChatGPT Plus, which is offered at $20 a month and ChatGPT Pro, which is offered at $200 a month. The company also offers a business plan for $25 a month.

The use of ChatGPT has grown rapidly across the globe since its launch in late 2022. According to data from OpenAI, adoption growth rates of the AI chatbot in the lowest income countries were over four times those in the highest income countries by May 2025.

OpenAI noted that the budget-friendly plan is gradually being made available to all users. For those in Cambodia, Laos and Nepal, ChatGPT Go is already available on web and Android subscriptions, but not yet in the iOS app.

AMD stock climbed 11% on Wednesday, continuing a massive run since OpenAI announced plans to buy billions of dollars of AI equipment from the chipmaker earlier this week.

On Monday, the ChatGPT maker entered into an agreement to potentially own 10% of AMD, based on its stock price and partnership milestones.

AMD now has a market cap of $380 billion after climbing 4% on Tuesday and 24% on Monday. Shares are up 43% so far this week, on pace for the best weekly gain since April 2016.

The partnership with OpenAI, which has historically been closely linked with Nvidia, has bolstered investor confidence that AMD will be a viable competitor to Nvidia in AI chips.

AMD CEO Lisa Su told reporters on Monday that the deal was a “win-win” and that its AI chips were good enough to be used in “at-scale deployments,” or very large data centers like the kind OpenAI and cloud providers build.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Wednesday reacted to the deal on CNBC’s Squawk Box, saying it was “surprising.”

“It’s imaginative, it’s unique and surprising, considering they were so excited about their next-generation product,” Huang said. “I’m surprised that they would give away 10% of the company before they even built it. And so anyhow, it’s clever, I guess.”