A group of the world’s largest banks has reportedly put about $270 million behind a plan to issue a dollar stablecoin. The move would bring Wall Street and European lenders into a market dominated by two crypto-native companies.
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Banco Santander and Deutsche Bank are among the institutions that committed the money, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter. Crypto news outlets relayed the report. Neither the banks nor the consortium had made a public statement at the time of writing, so the details remain unconfirmed.
What Project Faro is
The venture is known internally as Project Faro. It is being developed by a coalition of 21 banks and financial institutions that grew from a 10-bank group that began exploring a reserve-backed digital currency in October 2025.
Reported members include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fidelity Investments, BBVA, Lloyds Banking Group, UBS and MUFG Bank. JPMorgan Chase is not part of the group.
The $270 million is meant to cover the company’s operating costs for its first five years. The backers are reportedly incorporating the issuer in the United States and are still looking for a chief executive. The reports say it has not been disclosed whether the money comes as equity or another instrument. The size of each bank’s contribution, the blockchain the coin will run on and the company’s official name are also still undisclosed.
Timeline and ambitions
According to the group’s earlier statements, the issuer was expected to launch in the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions. A first dollar-pegged coin would then reach the market in the first half of 2027. The consortium has also said it wants to add a euro-denominated coin and possibly other Group of Seven currencies later.
The group says it intends to follow the US GENIUS Act, the federal framework for stablecoins, and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation where relevant.
A market dominated by two firms
The new entrant would be joining a crowded field. Dollar-pegged stablecoins in circulation total about $293 billion, according to DefiLlama data cited in the reports. Tether’s USDT accounts for roughly $176 billion and Circle’s USDC for about $70 billion, together about 84 percent of the market.
Newer rivals are smaller but growing. Open USD, backed by Coinbase, Visa and Stripe, has about $924 million in circulation.
Why banks want in
Stablecoins let people and companies move dollar-denominated value around the clock on public blockchains. For banks, that raises two concerns. One is the loss of payment volume to non-bank issuers. The other is the loss of deposits if customers hold more of their cash in digital tokens.
Backers of a bank-led coin argue that it could offer something the existing leaders cannot: reserves held and supervised within the regulated banking system. Whether customers and merchants value that difference enough to switch is untested.
Competing bank projects
Project Faro is not the only effort. Some of the same institutions, including JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, are reportedly developing a separate tokenized deposit network. A tokenized deposit is an ordinary bank deposit represented on a blockchain, rather than a coin issued by a separate company. That network is also expected to reach the market by 2027.
The overlap suggests banks are hedging, backing several approaches while regulators and customers decide which model wins.
Open questions
Several practical issues will decide whether the venture succeeds:
- Who will lead the company, and how independently it will operate.
- How reserves will be structured and audited.
- Whether exchanges, payment firms and merchants will adopt the coin in large numbers.
- How quickly regulators in the US and Europe approve the structure.
The reported $270 million is small next to the balance sheets of the banks involved. It is large enough, though, to show that major lenders now treat stablecoins as strategic rather than experimental.
This article is for information only. The funding details are based on reports citing unnamed sources and have not been confirmed by the banks.
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