Key points
- Twenty-one banks and asset managers said Tuesday they will form a company to issue a US dollar stablecoin, targeting a market launch in the first half of 2027.
- Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Fidelity are in it. JPMorgan (JPM) is not.
- Circle (CRCL) traded near $90.97 at midday Tuesday, down 4.8%, and Coinbase (COIN) near $180.07, down 4.3%.
- Stablecoins in circulation totaled $310.0 billion Tuesday, per DefiLlama. Tether's USDT held $183.3 billion of that and Circle's USDC $73.5 billion.
Twenty-one financial institutions said Tuesday they have committed to establish a new company to support the issuance of a US dollar stablecoin. The company is to be set up in the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions, and the group is targeting a market launch in the first half of 2027.
A fiat-backed stablecoin is a digital token redeemable one-for-one for a government currency, with reserves held against every unit in circulation. Other stablecoin designs hold crypto collateral or none at all.
The first product will be denominated in US dollars. The release states a longer-term ambition to issue stablecoins in additional G7 currencies, with a euro offering as the priority. The named use cases are cross-border payments and digital asset settlement, spanning wholesale, institutional and retail markets.
Who is in the group, and who is not
The 21 institutions span five regions.
| Region | Institutions | Count |
|---|
| North America | Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo, WisdomTree | 10 |
| Europe | Banco Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank, UBS | 8 |
| East Asia | MUFG Bank | 1 |
| Middle East | Sirius International Holding | 1 |
| Africa | Standard Bank | 1 |
Eighteen of the 21 are banks, including South Africa's Standard Bank. The three exceptions are Fidelity Investments and WisdomTree (WT), both US asset managers that already issue their own stablecoins, and Sirius International Holding, a subsidiary of an Abu Dhabi conglomerate.
Eight of the ten banks first reported in October 2025 to be exploring a joint stablecoin are in the final group. They include Banco Santander (SAN), Deutsche Bank (DB), Goldman Sachs (GS) and MUFG Bank (MUFG). US dollar stablecoin supply stood at $290 billion when that earlier group was reported.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), the largest US bank by assets, isn't a participant. Neither are Morgan Stanley, HSBC or BNP Paribas. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi are separately building a shared tokenized deposit network, CoinDesk reported in June.
A tokenized deposit and a stablecoin are different instruments. A tokenized deposit stays a liability of the bank that issued it, so the deposit, the funding and the customer relationship all stay inside that bank. A stablecoin is designed to move between wallets, platforms and public blockchains without the holder needing an account at the issuer.
Circle, Coinbase and the existing market
Circle (CRCL) traded near $90.97 at midday Tuesday, down 4.8% from Monday's close of $95.55. Coinbase (COIN) traded near $180.07, down 4.3% from $188.12. Among the consortium members, WisdomTree traded near $24.56, up 2.1%, and Bank of America near $62.34, up 0.6%.
Neither company has commented on the announcement. The release doesn't name Circle, Coinbase or Tether, and no participant has said the venture is aimed at any existing issuer.
Stablecoins in circulation totaled $310.0 billion across 423 tokens on Tuesday, according to DefiLlama. Tether's USDT accounted for $183.3 billion of that, or 59.13%. Circle's USDC accounted for $73.5 billion, or 23.7%.
On June 30, a group organized as Open Standard announced Open USD, a dollar stablecoin whose launch partners include Stripe, Visa, BlackRock and more than 140 other businesses, with a launch planned for later in 2026. Circle shares fell that day.
Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of Circle, responded at the time that "Stablecoins represent one of the largest market opportunities in the world as the internet transforms the infrastructure for storing and moving money," and that Circle welcomed "continued innovation and competition in the space."
No executive from any of the 21 institutions is quoted in Tuesday's release. Media inquiries are handled by the Brunswick Group, and business inquiries go to Boston Consulting Group partners Christian Schmid and Kunal Jhanji.
The release says the venture intends to comply with the GENIUS Act and with the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, known as MiCA, as applicable. MiCA imposes reserve and operational requirements on issuers operating in Europe. The European Central Bank has opposed multi-jurisdictional stablecoin issuance, PYMNTS reported in August.
On July 1, Allaire wrote on X that large groups of large companies "coordinate poorly, have misaligned incentives, slow things down and rarely create the space for real durable innovation." He was writing about Open USD, two months before Tuesday's announcement.
