A group of international banks have said they are working together to explore issuing a stablecoin product. The banks—Banco Santander, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, MUFG Bank Ltd, TD Bank Group, and UBS—said Friday that the digital token would be pegged to G7 currencies, according to a statement posted by BNP Paribas.
The G7 is made up of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. While the banks’ statement did not mention stablecoins directly, it did say the project would look at a “1:1 reserve-backed form of digital money” that runs on a “public blockchain.”
“The objective of the initiative is to explore whether a new industry-wide offering could bring the benefits of digital assets and enhance competition across the market, while ensuring full compliance with regulatory requirements and best practice risk management,” the statement said.
Stablecoins are digital tokens that are backed by non-volatile fiat currencies like dollars, euros, or yen. They were previously used almost exclusively by crypto traders to quickly make transactions—like buying Bitcoin and other digital assets—without having to use traditional banking rails.
But they have since gone mainstream: Major companies like Meta and Amazon, and major banks like Bank of America, have expressed interest in issuing their own tokens. And U.S. President Donald Trump in July signed into law the GENIUS Act, establishing a framework for issuing and trading stablecoins.
Stablecoin advocates argue that the tokens are useful for international payments due to their quick and low-cost nature. Analysts at British bank Standard Chartered this month said in a note that stablecoins could draw $1 trillion in deposits from banks in emerging markets over the next three years.
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