A consortium of major European banks – ING, UniCredit, Raiffeisen Bank International, SEB, Danske Bank, CaixaBank, KBC, Banca Sella, DekaBank and, as of Tuesday 2 December, BNP Paribas – is preparing to launch a stablecoin backed by the euro in the second half of 2026. This stablecoin will be issued by Qivalis, a company based in Amsterdam.
The project aims to offer a private and regulated European option in digital payments, as dollar-denominated stablecoins currently dominate exchanges.
This initiative comes at a time when legislative work on a future digital euro – a public digital currency to be issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) – is intensifying in the Council of the EU and the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13747/21; 13753/15).
“We have a regulatory framework within which stablecoins can be introduced”, said ECB President Christine Lagarde when asked about the project during a discussion with MEPs on the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on Wednesday 3 December.
“With 10 reputable and respectable banks as the founding fathers and mothers of this euro-denominated stablecoin, if it falls within the framework prescribed by 'MiCAR' [the European regulation on crypto-assets markets, ed.], if it is properly supervised by the Dutch supervisor, fine. This is perfectly legitimate”, added Ms Lagarde.
Further information about Qivalis: https://aeur.eu/f/jt8 (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)