Ten major European banks have formed a consortium named Qivalis to issue a euro-pegged stablecoin, targeting an operational launch in the second half of 2026. The initiative aims to provide a regulated, bank-backed digital euro alternative for institutional payments and to reduce reliance on dollar-denominated stablecoins.
The founding group includes ING, UniCredit, BNP Paribas, Banca Sella, KBC, DekaBank, Danske Bank, SEB, CaixaBank and Raiffeisen Bank International. Qivalis is domiciled in Amsterdam and is pursuing Electronic Money Institution (EMI) authorization from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). Jan‑Oliver Sell, formerly an executive at Coinbase Germany, has been appointed CEO to lead the project.
The stablecoin will operate under the EU Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation (MiCAR), which became fully applicable on December 30, 2024. MiCAR mandates strong consumer protections, independent reserve audits and liquidity safeguards, including a requirement that at least 30% of reserves be held as bank deposits at regulated credit institutions.
Product design, technology, use cases, risks and rollout
Qivalis plans a 1:1 euro backing with reserves segregated from operational funds and subject to regular independent audits. Reserve composition will prioritize immediate liquidity—bank deposits for redemptions—and high‑quality, short‑term instruments such as government paper for secondary holdings.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) refers to decentralized databases that record transactions across multiple nodes; Qivalis intends to use a permissioned, enterprise‑grade DLT engineered for high throughput, low latency and integration with legacy banking systems. Targeted use cases emphasize business‑to‑business payments, corporate treasury operations and programmable payments enabled by smart contract logic to automate conditional settlements and reconciliation.
Project risks include regulatory approval hurdles, operational complexity, cybersecurity threats and the challenge of market adoption beyond institutional clients. The consortium’s bank backing and MiCAR compliance are positioned as mitigation measures, but execution risk remains significant given the need to integrate banking rails and secure authorization from DNB.
The initiative enters a competitive field dominated by large dollar‑pegged stablecoins such as USDT and USDC and faces other euro projects, including emerging private initiatives. Qivalis intends a phased rollout prioritizing B2B and treasury use cases to build trust and integration before broader expansion, projecting operational readiness in the second half of 2026, with interim pilots or targeted deployments likely during the build‑out.
Qivalis represents a coordinated push by incumbent banks to create a regulated euro stablecoin tailored to institutional needs, balancing innovation with strict compliance.
