Europe’s Banks Build Their Own Stablecoin: Qivalis

Why the planned euro stablecoin says more about Europe’s financial sovereignty than about crypto

Introduction

For a long time, the stablecoin landscape seemed clearly divided. US-dollar stablecoins dominated volume, liquidity, and infrastructure. If you used programmable money, you mostly used it on a dollar basis—regardless of whether the underlying business took place in Europe or not.

That dominance was convenient and efficient, and rarely questioned. But it also created a structural dependency: European companies relied on digital dollar infrastructure even when their value creation was fully within the euro area.

Now Europe is organizing a countermovement. Under the name Qivalis, a consortium of leading European banks is working on a joint, regulated euro stablecoin. Participating institutions include BNP Paribas, ING, BBVA, and DZ Bank, among others. Quietly—without a major marketing campaign—but with notable strategic clarity.

The move is less spectacular than headlines suggest. And that is precisely its significance.

Background: why banks are acting now

For a long time, European banks watched stablecoins from a distance. Regulatory uncertainty seemed too high, the technological base too foreign, and existing providers too US-centric. With Europe’s crypto regulation MiCAR, that environment has fundamentally changed.

For the first time, Europe has a clear, unified legal framework for stablecoins. Issuance rules, reserve requirements, governance, transparency obligations, and supervision are defined. Stablecoin infrastructure moves from a regulatory gray zone to a bank-compatible, predictable business model.

For banks, this marks a turning point. What used to be treated as a “crypto topic” is now a classic infrastructure question: Who will provide digital euro money that is programmable, interoperable, and fully compliant—while remaining embedded in existing banking relationships?

Qivalis: a European infrastructure project

The banking consortium Qivalis is not a loose cooperation, but is deliberately designed as a long-term infrastructure platform. The goal is a fully regulated euro stablecoin built on European banking infrastructure and aligned with MiCAR.

The consortium originally started with nine European banks. More and more well-known institutions have joined since then. In early February 2026, it became public that BBVA had joined as the twelfth bank. This momentum underlines that Qivalis is not intended as a short-term experiment, but as a strategically designed infrastructure initiative.

What stands out is not only the technology, but the consortium’s composition. By bringing together institutions from multiple European countries, the project aims for a cross-border solution. The ambition is not another national special path, but a European alternative to US-dominated stablecoin structures.

The motivation is less ideological than economic. Banks see programmable money increasingly entering corporate processes—from settlement and treasury to automated payment and delivery conditions. Those who do not help shape this infrastructure risk becoming mere consumers of it.

Distinction from the digital euro

Inevitably, the question arises how this relates to the European Central Bank’s digital euro. Why a bank-backed stablecoin if the ECB is working on central bank digital money?

The answer lies in use cases. The digital euro is primarily conceived as a public means of payment, with a strong focus on consumers, privacy, and monetary stability. A bank-sector euro stablecoin, by contrast, targets corporate-adjacent use cases: internal settlement, programmable payments, settlement processes, and integration into existing banking and ERP environments.

The two concepts are therefore not in direct competition. They occupy different layers of the same payments infrastructure. For companies, bank-backed stablecoins could become relevant far earlier than a broadly available digital euro.

Europe’s response to US dollar dominance

Another dimension is geopolitical and economic. Today, roughly 99% of the global stablecoin market is denominated in US-dollar tokens. That dominance creates efficiency and liquidity—but also structural dependencies on US infrastructure, US regulation, and US providers.

A European euro stablecoin—backed by a banking consortium like Qivalis—is therefore more than a technical product. It is a building block of Europe’s financial sovereignty. Not in the sense of isolation, but as a strategic option for critical payment and settlement processes within the euro area.

That banks are taking this step is logical. They bring established customer relationships, regulatory experience, and operational proximity to mid-sized companies. That is precisely where demand for reliable, programmable payment infrastructure is likely to grow.

What does this mean for CFOs and mid-sized companies?

For businesses, this initiative is not an immediate call to action. Nobody needs to deploy stablecoins in production or redesign payment processes today. But the signal is clear.

Programmable euro money is becoming real in Europe—not as a political future project, but as bank-adjacent infrastructure. CFOs should therefore ask less whether stablecoins will come, and more where they could create value over time—for example in cross-border settlement, intra-group payment flows, or automating contractually defined payment conditions.

As with previous posts, awareness and capability are the crucial first step. Understanding the differences between the digital euro, bank-backed stablecoins, and traditional bank money helps companies assess developments and prepare well before operational decisions are required.

Conclusion

The euro stablecoin of European banks—organized in the Qivalis consortium—is not a crypto experiment and not a political symbol. It is a pragmatic infrastructure component in a financial system that is gradually realigning.

Europe is no longer waiting exclusively for the digital euro. It is starting to build complementary solutions within the existing banking system. Companies should follow this development closely—not out of innovation hype, but out of strategic interest.

Because when banks begin to reshape digital money, it is rarely about trends. It is about the next expansion stage of infrastructure.