Europe’s Stablecoin Project Receives Support of 37 Banks

Another 25 banks have joined the consortium behind Qivalis, taking the total membership to 37 financial institutions from 15 countries. The new members include ABN Amro, Rabobank, Sabadell, Bankinter, Bank of Ireland, Handelsbanken and Nordea, while founding and existing backers include ING, BBVA, and BNP Paribas. The consortium, which announced it had chosen Fireblocks as its infrastructure partner back in April, was launched with the intention to counter US dominance in digital payments with a euro-backed stablecoin governed by European rules.

This development means Qivalis is now by far the largest European stablecoin initiative by number of bank backers. The project is also notable for targeting cross-border payments and atomic settlement rather than replacing domestic payment systems. Far from being niche use cases, they sit right in the middle of treasury, settlement, and transaction-banking discussions. ING’s own explanation makes the commercial logic clearer yet, stating how broader participation should increase liquidity, adoption, and distribution, while helping stablecoins move from niche experiments and into everyday use.

The consortium plans to launch the euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval. While stablecoins have long been heavily associated with crypto trading and offshore liquidity, Qivalis wants to reposition them as regulated transaction infrastructure. That might not exactly sound glamorous, but if it works, it’s a much larger addressable market, because it would impact cross-border B2B payments, corporate treasury, asset settlement, and escrow-style flows rather than exchange liquidity alone.

Of course, that market impact isn’t guaranteed, and there are major constraints to any euro-backed stablecoin. After all, euro-backed stablecoins remain tiny compared to dollar-backed leaders like Tether and Circle. For instance, Reuters reported that French multinational Société Générale’s euro stablecoin only had €105.6 million in circulation, compared to $189 billion for US giant Tether. The US market dominance is highly unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, but Qivalis’ growth shows that Europe’s banks have decided they can no longer afford to stay on the sidelines.

For fintechs in North America and elsewhere, there’s also a geopolitical layer. Most payments companies build mainly around dollar-backed stablecoins, US issuers, or US-regulated flows. However, if Europe succeeds in building a bank-backed euro stablecoin rail with local governance and compliance built-in, global payment products may need to build a more adaptable multi-rail architecture than they might’ve previously assumed.

In international markets, stablecoin are increasingly characterized as payments infrastructure rather than just another crypto product. That’s especially the case in the US, where banks and crypto companies are closer than they have been in years to reaching an agreement on the Clarity Act. Indeed, once banks, treasury teams, and settlement operators start describing stablecoin in terms of cross-border payments and atomic settlement, it’s time for fintechs to decide whether they build on that rail, compete with it, or supply it.