Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and a group of other major banks have pledged around USD 270 million to a jointly developed stablecoin. The money is intended to cover five years of operations for a yet-to-be-founded US issuer, which plans to bring a dollar token to market in the first half of 2027.

A stablecoin is a token that tracks the value of a national currency, with the peg backed by the issuer's reserves. Such tokens are used primarily for payments and the settlement of transactions on blockchains. To date, two crypto companies have dominated the dollar market: Tether and Circle.

The initiative began in October 2025, when ten banks explored a joint token. In September 2026, 21 financial institutions then announced the creation of their own issuing company, though at the time the name, ownership structure and financial contributions of the members remained open. The USD 270 million is therefore the first known figure on the project's finances, as Bloomberg reports. With the project, the consortium is targeting a market of around USD 295 billion, in which USDT and USDC hold just under 84%.

What the USD 270 Million Is Meant to Fund

The pledge is expected to cover the future issuer's operations for its first five years, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The report, published in November 2026 a little over two months after the consortium's official announcement, names Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Banco Santander and Deutsche Bank as participating firms. Internally, the initiative also appears to run under the name "Project Faro".

Several key points remain open. The venture has neither a CEO nor a final name, and it is equally unclear how the members will split the USD 270 million and whether all 21 will contribute. Spread over five years, the sum comes to around USD 54 million per year for the consortium as a whole. Bloomberg says the money is earmarked for operations, so the weight of the report lies in the multi-year commitment — and with it, in the fact that the banks are tying themselves to a product of their own. US lawmakers had previously set the regulatory framework for this with the GENIUS Act.

The 21-Member Consortium and Its Roadmap to 2027

The first group of ten banks explored a form of digital money on public blockchains in October 2025, with reserves set to back the token on a 1:1 basis. Members of this group included Bank of America, Santander and UBS, among others. In late August 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported on the banks' plans, and the official announcement followed shortly after. In it, 21 financial institutions — more than doubling the original circle — announced a joint issuing company. The company is first to come into being in the second half of 2026, provided the deal meets its closing conditions. The dollar token comes next, planned for the first half of 2027, with the euro to follow as the next priority, along with other G7 currencies.

The consortium has a broad geographic reach. Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo join from North America, while Santander, Deutsche Bank and UBS represent Europe. MUFG Bank participates from East Asia, Sirius International Holding from the Middle East and Standard Bank from Africa. Not all members are banks, however: several reports include the asset manager Fidelity Investments, which makes the label "21 banks" imprecise.

Legally, the token is to align with the GENIUS Act, the first US federal framework for payment stablecoins, dating from 2025. Where applicable, it is also to meet the EU's MiCA regulation, which governs stablecoins in the European Union. Its intended uses are cross-border payments and the settlement of digital assets, covering business with wholesale and retail clients as well as institutional investors.

What also stands out is who is missing: JPMorgan is not on the list of named members. Shortly before the announcement, the bank had said it had no plans for a stablecoin of its own.

USDT and USDC Hold Just Under 84% of the Stablecoin Market

According to DefiLlama, total stablecoin supply stood at around USD 295 billion as of November 9, 2026. Of this, around USD 177 billion was Tether's USDT, a share of just under 60%, while Circle's USDC reached around USD 70 billion, or 24%. Together, the two market leaders thus hold USD 247 billion and just under 84% of the market, leaving roughly USD 48 billion for all other stablecoins. Any new entrant consequently starts from zero against two established issuers.

At the same time, the market is shrinking. Supply has fallen since its peak in May 2026, and in the week to November 9 alone it dropped 1.5%. The consortium is therefore preparing its market entry at a time when stablecoins as a whole are losing volume. A shrinking market intensifies competition for existing holdings — especially since Open USD is another dollar token vying for share.

Rival announcements leave their mark on Circle's share price as well. On the day of the Open USD unveiling in June 2026, the stock lost around 16.5%. After the WSJ report on the banks' plans in late August, it fell a comparatively modest 2.3%.

Open USD and Qivalis Run in Parallel

The bank project is not the only stablecoin consortium betting on the dollar. In June 2026, the Open Standard alliance unveiled the Open USD (OUSD) token. Its founding partners include Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa, and the group now counts more than 200 partners. The partners have pledged over USD 1 billion for initial liquidity, and the yield from the reserves flows to them. The token went into circulation in late September 2026. In short, Open USD rests on payment networks and merchant platforms, while the bank consortium focuses on settlement and cross-border payments.

In Europe, the banking consortium behind Qivalis is pursuing a comparable project for the euro. The Amsterdam-based joint venture traces back to an announcement in September 2025. Its founders include ING, UniCredit and CaixaBank, and BNP Paribas joined in December 2025 as the tenth bank. On its website, however, Qivalis now lists 37 banks from 15 countries as supporters. The site states that the Dutch central bank DNB has licensed the company as an e-money institution, yet it does not issue any e-money at this point. Qivalis has announced the launch of a euro stablecoin for the second half of 2026.

UBS is the only documented Swiss member of the 21-member consortium. In October 2025, the Federal Council sent an amendment to the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) into consultation, which ran until February 2026. Among other things, the draft creates a new license category, the payment instrument institution, and only such an institution could issue stable-value payment instruments. As a result, banks would have to set up a dedicated subsidiary — a point the Swiss Bankers Association criticized. The Federal Council planned to send its dispatch to Parliament in the second half of 2026 at the earliest, and the draft names no date for entry into force.