Bermuda to Build On-Chain Economy With Coinbase and Circle

The Government of Bermuda announced that it is partnering with Coinbase and Circle to move large parts of its national economy onchain, using blockchain-based payments and digital assets as everyday financial infrastructure.

The plan, unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday, targets practical use cases rather than pilots. Government agencies, local banks, insurers, businesses, and consumers are expected to begin adopting onchain payment and settlement tools, with USDC serving as the primary settlement asset and Coinbase providing the underlying infrastructure.

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From pilot programs to national rollout

Government offices are set to test stablecoin payments, while banks and insurers bring in tokenization and digital settlement tools. Coinbase will also help with onboarding and education, guiding residents and businesses as they move to onchain wallets and payments.

“This initiative is about lowering costs and creating opportunity,” said E. David Burt, noting that traditional payment rails are often expensive and restrictive for island economies like Bermuda. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also called the move “huge.”

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Why stablecoins sit at the center

Stablecoins are central to the strategy. USDC allows merchants to accept fast, low-cost, dollar-denominated payments without relying on slow or expensive correspondent banking networks. According to the announcement, several Bermudian businesses are already using stablecoins in live payment flows.

USDC as a pattern trades 1:1 with USD, with a market value of about $75.8 billion, while 24h volume jumped 126% to $14.6 billion, pointing to heavy transactional use rather than price speculation.

The partners argue that keeping transactions onchain helps economic value circulate locally, rather than leaking out through fees charged by offshore processors and intermediaries.

Years in the making

Bermuda rolled out the Digital Asset Business Act in 2018, making it an early mover on crypto regulation, and has since licensed a small group of firms, including Coinbase and Circle, under tight oversight from the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

Momentum picked up at the Bermuda Digital Finance Forum in 2025, where the government and its partners ran an onchain USDC airdrop to onboard merchants and users. Officials say those efforts will scale further at the 2026 forum, scheduled for May.

An aspirational but open model

The government stressed that the project is non-exclusive and voluntary. Businesses and residents are not required to adopt blockchain tools, and Bermuda remains open to working with other technology providers.

By taking payments and settlement onchain across the country, Bermuda aims to position itself as a real-world test case for how blockchain infrastructure can work beyond pilots, at the scale of a national economy.

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