A consortium of 21 leading international financial institutions has announced plans to launch a new stablecoin company.
The consortium includes Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Wells Fargo, Fidelity Investments, and WisdomTree.
The company is expected to be established in the second half of 2026. It plans to issue a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. The stablecoin is targeted for market launch in the first half of 2027.
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The group, which has more than doubled in size since its initial announcement of ten banks in October 2025, said the new company will focus first on a USD-denominated stablecoin before expanding into other G7 currencies, prioritizing the euro.
The initiative is designed to serve wholesale, institutional and retail markets, with primary use cases centered on cross-border payments and digital asset settlements.
Participating institutions span North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. North American members include Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo and WisdomTree.
European participants comprise Banco Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank and UBS. MUFG Bank, Sirius International Holding and Standard Bank complete the roster.
The consortium said the stablecoin solution is intended to be GENIUS Act- and MiCA-compliant, as applicable, combining bank-grade compliance, strong governance, distribution capabilities and institutional risk management.
Advisers Boston Consulting Group and Brunswick Group are supporting the effort. The name of the new company will be announced in due course, subject to closing conditions.
The move comes amid growing institutional interest in regulated digital money following the rebound in crypto markets and evolving regulatory frameworks in the United States and Europe.
The stablecoin market is moving beyond its origins in cryptocurrency trading and increasingly becoming part of the broader financial infrastructure.
Stablecoins are digital assets designed to maintain a relatively stable value, typically by being pegged to fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar and backed by reserves such as cash, bank deposits, or short-term government securities.
By the end of May 2026, global stablecoin market capitalisation had reached roughly $320 billion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Other estimates put the market even higher, reflecting its rapid expansion and the growing number of financial applications being developed around stablecoins.
One of the clearest signs that stablecoins are entering mainstream finance is the growing involvement of banks and traditional financial institutions.
For banks, the attraction goes beyond cryptocurrency. Stablecoins can potentially make money programmable. A payment could be embedded directly into a digital transaction and executed automatically once predefined conditions are met.
This could have implications for trade finance, corporate treasury, securities settlement and machine-to-machine payments. They can also provide a common digital settlement layer connecting banks, fintech companies, exchanges and other financial institutions operating on different systems.
That could make cross-border transactions faster and potentially reduce some of the friction created by multiple correspondent banks, operating hours and settlement processes.
The rise of stablecoins is also pushing banks to develop tokenized deposits—digital representations of commercial bank money recorded on blockchain-based infrastructure.
The emergence of bank-backed stablecoins could ultimately lead to a financial system where traditional money and blockchain-based money operate side by side, making stablecoins less of a cryptocurrency product and more of a new digital rail for moving money globally.
While independent stablecoin issuers currently dominate the market, this bank-led consortium represents one of the most significant traditional finance efforts to date to create a trusted, widely distributed form of digital cash on public blockchains.