European banks expand euro stablecoin consortium

On May 20, 25 additional banks joined Qivalis, an Amsterdam-based consortium developing a euro-pegged stablecoin. Membership now totals 37 financial institutions across 15 countries. New participants include ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Sabadell, Bankinter, Bank of Ireland, Handelsbanken and Nordea. Earlier members include ING, BNP Paribas and BBVA.

Qivalis framed the project as a way to enable euro-denominated settlement on blockchain networks and to have European banks develop and govern the on-chain infrastructure. Jan-Oliver Sell, Qivalis’s chief executive, described the goal as: ‘The euro is Europe’s currency, and on-chain financial infrastructure should carry it — built by European institutions and governed by European rules.’

Stablecoins are dominated by dollar-backed tokens. Tether’s USDT has about $190 billion in circulation and Circle’s USDC about $77 billion. Euro-backed tokens remain small by comparison. Societe Generale’s crypto unit launched a euro token in 2023 that has about €105.6 million in circulation.

Consortium members cited the potential importance of stablecoin rails for future payment flows and for the settlement of tokenized assets such as bonds, deposits and real estate across blockchain-based systems.

Regulatory developments in the European Union and the United States are moving toward clearer frameworks for stablecoins. Those frameworks could affect which jurisdictions and institutions operate future digital payment systems.

Qivalis’s expansion assembles banks from multiple markets and banking systems to develop a euro-denominated alternative to existing dollar-backed networks.