preferred on
Points of Focus
- 21 banks committed to a dollar stablecoin company launching by mid-2027
- A separate 140-firm coalition, Open USD, launched roughly two months earlier
- JPMorgan Chase appears on neither list, despite internally weighing its own
Twenty-one financial institutions committed to establishing a new company in the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions, to issue a dollar-denominated stablecoin by the first half of 2027, later expanding to other G7 currencies with the euro first.
Bank of America, Citi and Goldman Sachs Join 21-Firm Group to Launch USD Stablecoin
Twenty-one major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Fidelity Investments, Wells Fargo and MUFG, have committed to establish a new company… pic.twitter.com/jyrsmeBDyz
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 1, 2026
The group spans Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, PNC, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo, and WisdomTree in North America, Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds, Rabobank, and UBS in Europe, Japan’s MUFG Bank, Sirius International Holding in the Middle East, and Standard Bank in Africa.
The group has roughly doubled from an initial 10 banks first disclosed in October 2025, advised by Boston Consulting Group and Brunswick Group, neither of which the release states has authority to bind the consortium.
A 140-firm rival stablecoin group already moved first
A separate, larger coalition called Open USD, backed by more than 140 companies including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Chime, Coinbase, and Ripple, launched roughly two months before this bank group’s announcement. Per reporting on both efforts, there’s almost no overlap between their backers.
The single exception is BBVA, which sits on both lists, meaning at least one major bank is hedging across two structurally different visions for what a credible stablecoin coalition should look like, one built by banks, the other by payment networks and crypto-native firms.
That rival coalition’s own credibility took a hit shortly after launch. Open Standard, the entity governing Open USD, listed more than 140 “founding partners” at launch, including Samsung Electronics, Shinhan Financial Group, Dunamu, and K-Bank among the Korean firms named.
Several of those companies publicly disputed the listing: Samsung said it had held no formal talks and was unaware of its supposed role, while Dunamu, Shinhan, and K-Bank said they had received preliminary inquiries but had not approved participation, with at least one company saying it first learned of its own inclusion through media reports rather than from Open Standard directly.
Yesterday I flagged that 13 Korean companies were listed as OUSD partners. Today there’s a significant caveat: several of them say they never actually agreed to anything.
OUSD (Open USD) is a dollar stablecoin from the Open Standard consortium, unveiled June 30 with a planned… pic.twitter.com/OJSjkVUh0U
— Tony Chung (@jayc_BM) July 3, 2026
JPMorgan isn’t in either stablecoin group
JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, appears on neither list.
The bank has internally evaluated launching its own stablecoin, according to the Wall Street Journal, with a spokeswoman telling the paper directly: “While we have no plans to issue a stablecoin, depending on customer demand and the evolution of the regulatory landscape, we would of course evaluate all options in the future.”
That’s a deliberate absence from the country’s largest bank, choosing to sit out both major coalitions rather than commit to either.
Europe’s own stablecoin effort is even further fragmented
Europe already has a separate, even more fragmented effort in progress. Qivalis, a euro-focused bank consortium, has grown to 37 institutions across 15 countries and remains pre-launch, still awaiting authorization from the Dutch central bank as of this year.
The fact that the fragmentation spans currencies and continents, not just competing visions within a single market, underscores how far the industry is from any single dominant approach.
Bank-issued stablecoins have struggled for scale so far
The scale these announcements imply is worth checking against what’s actually happened when a major bank has tried this before.
Societe Generale, the first major bank to issue its own dollar-backed stablecoin, carries only about $12.5 million in circulation despite being live for over a year.
That’s a genuine reality check on how much retail and institutional demand bank-issued stablecoins have generated in practice, regardless of how many institutions now say they’re building one.
Why so many competing stablecoin coalitions now exist
Three major coalitions – one Open USD-style network already live, one 21-bank group still forming, and Europe’s Qivalis effort awaiting regulatory clearance – are now pursuing overlapping goals through separate structures.
The stated ambitions across all three are broadly similar: bank-grade compliance, cross-border settlement, GENIUS Act and MiCA compliance where applicable. Which structure actually attracts usage, rather than which one launches first or claims the most institutional backing, is the specific outcome none of today’s announcements can yet answer.
Share
Most read articles
