Wall Street Heavyweights Converge...Will They Break the Tether-Circle Duopoly in the Stablecoin Market?

▲ Stablecoin/AI-generated image

21 global financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Bank of America, have joined forces to issue dollar stablecoins. They are entering a market previously dominated by Circle and Tether, targeting a launch in the first half of 2027.

According to Coingape on September 2 (local time), the 21 financial institutions plan to establish a new company in the second half of 2026 to jointly issue stablecoins. The first stablecoin to be issued will be pegged to the US dollar. The target launch period is the first half of 2027. Subsequently, the scope will be expanded to include G7 currencies, starting with the euro. The number of participating institutions has more than doubled from 10 at the time of the announcement last October to 21.

In North America, Capital One, Fidelity Investments, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo, and WisdomTree are participating. In Europe, Banco Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank, and UBS have joined. MUFG Bank from East Asia, Sirius International Holding from the Middle East, and Standard Bank from Africa have also been named on the list of participants.

The 21 financial institutions plan to issue stablecoins or tokens on a public blockchain, backed 1:1 by reserve assets. These will be available for wholesale finance, as well as institutional and individual clients. Cross-border payments and digital asset settlements were also presented as key application areas. The banking sector is pushing to establish regulated payment and settlement instruments that will compete with existing cryptocurrency-transaction-centric dollar stablecoins.

Banks are also successively entering the market. With the enforcement of the US stablecoin regulation GENIUS and the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, SoFi, Standard Chartered, PayPal, and Revolut are also pursuing separate stablecoin businesses. JPMorgan is also planning to issue stablecoins, intensifying the competition surrounding existing issuers like Circle and Tether.

Competition is also spreading to euro-pegged and separate dollar stablecoin projects. Qivalis, with 37 financial institutions participating, plans to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in late 2026. Financial firms, including BlackRock, Coinbase, Ripple, and Mastercard, are also pushing for the launch of Open Standard's OUSD.

[Article Key Summary]

-21 global financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Bank of America, are pushing for the launch of dollar stablecoins in the first half of 2027.

-The new stablecoins will be backed 1:1 by reserve assets and are expected to be used for cross-border payments, digital asset settlements, and transactions for institutional and individual clients.

-With the addition of 37 financial institutions' euro-pegged stablecoin projects and the OUSD project, competition in the global financial sector's stablecoin market is expanding.

*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*