A consortium of 21 leading financial institutions has pledged approximately $270 million to support Project Faro, an initiative aimed at issuing a US dollar-pegged stablecoin. The group intends to launch the stablecoin in the first half of 2027, with future plans to introduce digital assets backed by other major global currencies.
Project Faro’s vision and backers
Project Faro seeks to create a new stablecoin issuer with the capability to provide tokens pegged to the currencies of all G7 nations. After the US dollar offering, the consortium expects to roll out a euro-backed stablecoin as its next major product.
The new firm is targeting a launch window within the next three years and reportedly plans to incorporate in the United States. Bloomberg reported that the $270 million raised will fund operational expenses for at least five years.
Major players participating in the project include Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank, and BBVA. These institutions are among the world’s largest banking groups, with extensive international operations.
Mini dictionary: G7 currencies refer to the main national currencies used by the Group of Seven, an intergovernmental organization comprising Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Industry overlap and competing projects
In addition to Project Faro, several similar stablecoin efforts are progressing in parallel. Notably, payments technology company Stripe is leading a separate initiative called Open USD, which has Visa as a founding partner. Meanwhile, Qivalis, a consortium of European banks, aims to challenge the dominance of US dollar-based stablecoins with its forthcoming euro-denominated digital asset.
Some banks, including BBVA and Dutch lender Rabobank, hold memberships in both Faro and Qivalis. Rabobank joined Qivalis in May, joining a total of 37 banks in the euro-focused group. BNP Paribas has also been involved in both initiatives after first exploring Project Faro in late 2025.
Many banks are maintaining positions across several stablecoin initiatives, allowing them to participate in different models for digital currency issuance and distribution while staying engaged with emerging digital asset infrastructure.
Qivalis has achieved key regulatory milestones. In October 2026, the Dutch central bank authorized Qivalis as an electronic money institution. The group is now preparing to launch a fully regulated, euro-backed stablecoin intended for payments, cross-border settlements, and tokenized asset transfers.
Stablecoin landscape and market competition
Despite growing institutional interest, Project Faro will enter a stablecoin market currently dominated by crypto-native companies. Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC collectively account for around 85% of the global stablecoin market, which totaled approximately $290 billion as of November 10, according to DefiLlama. USDT held a market capitalization near $176.3 billion, while USDC had around $70.4 billion.
| Stablecoin | Market Capitalization | Market Share |
|---|---|---|
| USDT (Tether) | $176.3 billion | ~61% |
| USDC (Circle) | $70.4 billion | ~24% |
| Other stablecoins | ≈$43.3 billion | ~15% |
The consortium backing Project Faro believes that established relationships with banking clients, payment networks, and business partners could help their stablecoin reach a broader audience. By leveraging existing infrastructure, Project Faro aims to distribute its token quickly and efficiently compared to newer, less-established competitors.
Faro’s advantage may lie in its access to existing banking and payments infrastructure, which could allow the new stablecoin to scale distribution among both retail and institutional customers more rapidly than crypto-native offerings.
Open USD, launched by the Open Standard consortium, is similarly uniting banks, payment companies, and merchants for a shared stablecoin platform, focusing on broad adoption through industry partnerships.
Both Project Faro and Open USD face the task of transforming traditional financial infrastructure and customer bases into effective, blockchain-based payment networks that can compete with established digital dollar issuers.
