Qivalis euro stablecoin consortium swells to 37 banks ahead of H2 launch

Europe's banks are closing ranks behind a single euro stablecoin. Qivalis, the Amsterdam-based consortium formed to issue a euro-denominated, MiCA-aligned token, has added 25 member banks in one move, taking its membership to 37 financial institutions across 15 countries. For an asset class still overwhelmingly dollar-denominated, the speed of bank sign-up is the story: a critical mass of regulated incumbents is betting that euro settlement should sit on infrastructure they control rather than on tokens issued elsewhere.

The newcomers include Dutch lenders ABN Amro and Rabobank, Spanish banks Banco Sabadell and Bankinter, Bank of Ireland, Sweden's Handelsbanken and Finland's Nordea. They join founding participants ING, BNP Paribas and BBVA. The breadth matters more than any single name. Cross-border euro payments and tokenised-asset settlement only work at scale if a stablecoin is accepted across the bloc, and a consortium spanning 15 markets gives Qivalis a distribution footprint that standalone issuers cannot easily match.

Regulatory clock is ticking

Qivalis expects authorisation from the Dutch central bank "shortly" to operate as an e-money institution, and plans to begin issuing once regulatory and technical work is complete in the second half of this year. The token will be backed one-for-one by euro reserves and built to comply with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the framework that has given bank-led euro projects a clearer path than their dollar counterparts enjoy in the United States.

The intended use cases point squarely at wholesale and corporate finance: low-cost instant cross-border payments available around the clock, scheduled transfers, and automated settlement of tokenised assets such as bonds, which could trim counterparty credit risk.

Closing the dollar gap

The competitive backdrop is stark. Dollar-pegged tokens from Tether and Circle account for roughly $190bn and $77bn in circulation respectively, while euro issuance remains thin. Chief executive Jan-Oliver Sell framed the expansion as evidence that "the majority of European institutions have already prioritised euro-native on-chain settlement," adding that "the euro is Europe's currency, and on-chain financial infrastructure should carry it." Whether 37 banks can move in step through licensing and launch will determine if that ambition holds.

Source: Electronic Payments International.