21 Financial Institutions Commit to Joint Stablecoin Venture

Twenty-one banks and asset managers said Tuesday they will set up a jointly backed company in the second half of this year to issue a US dollar stablecoin, aiming for a market launch in the first half of 2027 and later expansion into other G7 currencies, starting with the euro.

Almost eleven months after ten of the same institutions said they were studying the idea, the group has produced a target date and a longer member list and little else. The release names no chief executive, no ownership split, no company name, no blockchain, no custodian and no reserve manager, and carries no quotes from any of the 21 participants.

The venture would enter a market where two issuers control four-fifths of the supply. Circulating stablecoins stand at $310.4 billion, according to DefiLlama, with Tether's USDT at $183.3 billion, or 59%, and Circle's USDC at $73.8 billion, or 24%. Total supply is up 9.9% from $282.4 billion a year ago and down from a June 1 high of $317.4 billion.

Eight Of The Original Ten

The group builds on an Oct. 10, 2025 announcement in which ten banks said they were exploring a 1:1 reserve-backed form of digital money for public blockchains, focused on G7 currencies. Eight of those ten are in Tuesday's list: Banco Santander, Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, MUFG Bank, TD Bank Group and UBS.

Barclays and BNP Paribas, both in the original ten, are absent from the new one.

Thirteen firms joined: Capital One, Fidelity Investments, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, Wells Fargo and WisdomTree in North America; BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Lloyds Banking Group and Rabobank in Europe; Sirius International Holding, an Abu Dhabi holding company owned by International Holding Company, for the Middle East; and Standard Bank for Africa.

Three of the 21 are not banks. Fidelity and WisdomTree are asset managers, both of which already run tokenized money-market funds; WisdomTree won SEC clearance in February to trade its fund around the clock. Sirius describes itself as an IHC subsidiary focused on digital transformation, with operations in 28 countries.

Launch Meets Effective Date

The first-half 2027 launch window opens just after the US stablecoin law the venture plans to comply with takes effect. The GENIUS Act takes effect on the earlier of 120 days after federal regulators issue final implementing rules or Jan. 18, 2027, per the OCC.

No final rules have been issued. The OCC put out its proposed rule in February, the FDIC followed in April, and the statute's one-year rulemaking deadline passed in July with the framework still unfinished. The Defiant has reported on issuers claiming GENIUS compliance before the law was operative; Tuesday's release says the venture "intends to be GENIUS Act and MiCA-compliant, as applicable."

The release says the stablecoin will serve wholesale, institutional and retail markets, for cross-border payments and digital asset settlement, and will combine "bank-grade compliance, strong governance, distribution and institutional risk management."

Six Banks In Both Camps

Six of the 21 are already committed to a competing bank-led design. Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PNC, Santander and TD are among the 17 institutions backing The Clearing House's shared tokenized deposit network, announced in June and also targeting a first-half 2027 launch. Tokenized deposits are bank liabilities that stay inside the banking system; a stablecoin under GENIUS is a separate instrument backed by segregated reserves.

Wells Fargo went further on its own, announcing tokenized deposits for corporate and commercial clients on Aug. 4, due to go live this fall. Citi has explored a branded stablecoin since 2025. MUFG sits in a joint stablecoin council with fellow Japanese megabanks Mizuho and SMBC.

JPMorgan, the largest US bank and the most advanced in tokenized deposits with its JPMD token, is not among the 21.

Consortium stablecoins are also multiplying outside the banks. Open USD, governed by a 140-member group including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Stripe and Coinbase, was unveiled in June with reserve earnings routed to adopters rather than an issuer. SoFi's bank-issued SoFiUSD reached $150 million this year. Paxos-led USDG stands at $3.2 billion, per DefiLlama, and PayPal's PYUSD at $2.8 billion.

Circle Drops 6.4%

Circle shares closed at $89.48 on Tuesday, down 6.35% on the day of the announcement, according to StockAnalysis, for a market capitalization of about $22.7 billion. The stock traded at $88.35 in Wednesday pre-market.

Stablecoin prices did not move. USDT traded at $0.9995 and USDC at $0.9997, both down about 0.02% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.