By Twenty-one banks and financial firms, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, said on Tuesday they plan to form a company to issue a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, joining a growing race among major lenders to enter digital-asset payments.
The group said in a statement that it intends to establish the new venture in the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions, and to bring an initial dollar-denominated token to market in the first half of 2027.
The announcement, posted on Wells Fargo’s website, expands a consortium that began with 10 banks when first disclosed in October 2025. It now spans North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Participants include Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo and WisdomTree in North America. European members include Banco Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank and UBS, while MUFG Bank represents Asia in the group.
The new entity, which has not yet been named, will initially target wholesale, institutional and retail payments as well as digital-asset settlement, according to the group. Beyond the dollar token, the banks said they intend to add stablecoins pegged to other Group of Seven currencies, with a euro-denominated version identified as the next priority.
Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to hold a steady value by being pegged to a reference asset, most commonly the U.S. dollar, and backed by reserves such as cash and short-term government debt.
They are used to move money quickly across borders and to settle trades in digital-asset markets without converting back into traditional currency at every step.
The consortium said its stablecoin plan is designed to comply with the U.S. GENIUS Act, which set a federal regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins, and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, known as MiCA, as it seeks to operate across both jurisdictions.
The banks have not disclosed the name of the token, the blockchain networks it will run on, who will custody reserves, the venture’s governance structure or final redemption terms.
Lenders have grown increasingly concerned that stablecoins issued by technology and crypto firms could siphon deposits and payment-processing fees away from traditional banks.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law in 2025, gave stablecoins a clearer legal footing in the United States and accelerated interest from banks that had previously been cautious about the sector.
The market for dollar-pegged stablecoins remains dominated by Tether, which has said it has issued more than $180 billion of tokens and generates revenue by investing customer reserves in assets including U.S. Treasuries. Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is another major player.
JPMorgan Chase has examined launching its own stablecoin, though people familiar with the matter have said those discussions remain preliminary and no product is currently in development.
Banks have also collaborated on tokenized deposits, a related technology in which traditional bank deposits are represented as digital tokens on a blockchain, rather than as a stablecoin backed by segregated reserves.
Societe General became the first major global bank to issue a dollar-backed stablecoin through its digital-asset subsidiary last year, and that token has since built a track record in the market, according to industry data.
The 21-firm group will operate alongside a separate, larger consortium of 37 financial institutions that has formed a company called Qivalis and has said it plans to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin later this year.
BBVA is among the banks that belong to both groups, reflecting how European lenders in particular are hedging across multiple stablecoin initiatives.
Regulators outside the United States and Europe are also adjusting their rules as bank-led stablecoin projects multiply.
Singapore’s central bank is reviewing its stablecoin framework and considering provisions that would allow jointly issued, cross-border stablecoins, a shift from earlier rules that limited issuance to tokens backed domestically, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The banks did not provide a specific date within the second half of 2026 for closing the venture, nor did they give further detail on funding or ownership stakes in the new company.
The stablecoin market has expanded rapidly since the GENIUS Act took effect, drawing interest not only from banks but also from retailers, payment companies and, in some cases, politically connected ventures.
World Liberty Financial, a crypto business associated with the family of President Donald Trump, has also issued its own stablecoin, underscoring the breadth of new entrants competing for a share of the payments market that dollar-pegged tokens are reshaping.
