Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi and 18 financial giants team up to launch dollar stablecoin

Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank and 17 other financial institutions are joining forces to launch a U.S. dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027, setting up one of traditional finance’s most serious attempts yet to move bank-backed money onto public blockchains.

The 21-member group plans to establish a new company in the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions. The unnamed venture will start with a dollar-denominated stablecoin before targeting other G7 currencies, with a euro token first in line.

The coalition’s scale sets it apart from the many blockchain experiments banks have tested over the past decade.

According to the new release, the North American members include Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo and WisdomTree. European participants include Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank and UBS. MUFG Bank, Sirius International Holding and Standard Bank round out the group.

“A group of 21 financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi and Deutsche Bank plan to create a company this year to issue a cryptocurrency pegged to the ​dollar in the first half of 2027,” Reuters confirmed, citing the group’s statement.

Their planned stablecoin is expected to be backed 1:1 by reserves and available on public blockchains. The consortium sees potential uses across cross-border payments, digital asset settlement and transactions involving institutional and retail customers.

The project is intended to comply with the U.S. GENIUS Act and Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, better known as MiCA.

Wall Street is walking into Tether’s territory

The banks are entering a stablecoin market that already has a heavyweight.

Tether dominates dollar-backed stablecoins, with more than $180 billion in USDT issued. The El Salvador-based crypto startup has turned that enormous pool of reserves into a lucrative business by investing much of the money backing USDT in assets such as U.S. Treasury securities.

That business model has become increasingly difficult for traditional finance to ignore.

Stablecoins started largely as infrastructure for cryptocurrency traders who needed a dollar-like asset that could move between exchanges around the clock. Their role is starting to stretch beyond crypto trading as banks, payment companies and asset managers test blockchain-based settlement and cross-border payments.

The shift accelerated after crypto markets rebounded in 2024 and the Trump administration embraced digital assets. U.S. stablecoin legislation has since provided financial institutions with a clearer regulatory framework for issuing dollar-backed tokens.

Still, attaching some of banking’s biggest names to a stablecoin does not guarantee people will use it.

France’s Société Générale offers an early reality check. Its digital asset subsidiary became the first major bank to issue a dollar-backed stablecoin last year, yet the token has just $12.5 million in circulation, according to the project’s website.

The 21-member consortium will also face competition from traditional finance. A separate group of 37 financial institutions formed Qivalis to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin later this year. BBVA is among the institutions participating in both initiatives.

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture tied to President Donald Trump’s family, has also entered the stablecoin business.

Regulators remain cautious. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has warned that privately issued stablecoins could create risks for monetary policy and financial stability, concerns likely to grow if privately issued digital currencies move deeper into everyday payments.

For Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and their partners, the bigger question may no longer be whether banks can issue stablecoins. They clearly can.

The question is whether customers will choose a bank-backed token when crypto-native issuers already have a massive head start.

That makes the 2027 launch more than another Wall Street blockchain project. It will test whether the institutions that built the traditional financial system can translate their trust, regulatory standing and global distribution into an advantage in a market that grew up largely without them.