Qivalis, the Amsterdam-based fintech company formed to issue a regulated euro stablecoin, has won backing from 37 banks, giving the project a broader European distribution base as lenders seek a bank-led alternative to dollar-dominated digital money markets.

The expansion, reported by the Financial Times on May 20, makes Qivalis the largest European euro stablecoin initiative by number of bank backers. The group now includes major institutions such as BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, ABN Amro, Intesa Sanpaolo and Rabobank, alongside other European lenders that could help provide the network reach needed for a stablecoin to move beyond a narrow crypto-market role.

The project is aimed at issuing a euro-denominated token that can be used for faster payments, cross-border transfers, treasury functions and settlement of digital assets. Qivalis has applied for a license from De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank, and is targeting a launch later this year, according to the FT report. The company has also held talks with banks outside Europe in remittance-heavy corridors, suggesting an ambition to make the token useful in international flows as well as European institutional finance.

The wider bank support gives Qivalis a stronger claim to being a credible private-sector answer to one of Europe’s central digital finance concerns: the stablecoin market is overwhelmingly denominated in U.S. dollars. Dollar tokens issued by Tether and Circle dominate crypto trading, settlement and liquidity provision, while euro stablecoins remain a small fraction of the global market. That imbalance has become a policy issue as stablecoins move from exchange collateral into broader payment and financial-market infrastructure.

For European banks, Qivalis offers a way to participate in tokenized payments without leaving the field to non-bank issuers. Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value against a reference currency, typically by holding reserves in cash, bank deposits, government bills or similar instruments. In crypto markets, they are used to move value around the clock and across trading venues. In institutional finance, the same features are increasingly being examined for securities settlement, collateral mobility, trade finance and corporate treasury operations.

Qivalis is seeking to build that functionality inside Europe’s regulatory perimeter. The company describes its project as a euro stablecoin intended to be fully regulated and supported by European banks. Earlier announcements from participating lenders said the planned token would be developed under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, known as MiCA, and supervised through the Dutch regulatory process. MiCA created an EU-wide regime for crypto-asset issuers and service providers, including rules for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, the categories most relevant to stablecoins.

The banking consortium behind Qivalis began with a smaller group of large European lenders and has grown steadily. Reuters reported in December that 10 banks, including ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas, had unveiled Qivalis as the company for the planned euro-pegged stablecoin, with former Coinbase Germany executive Jan-Oliver Sell as chief executive, ING’s Floris Lugt as chief financial officer and former NatWest chair Howard Davies as chair. Further banks joined in subsequent months, including BBVA and Sabadell, before the latest expansion lifted the number of supporting banks to 37.

The increase matters because stablecoin adoption depends heavily on network effects. A token that is redeemable, liquid and technically robust still needs broad acceptance among banks, exchanges, payment firms, market makers, corporates and custodians. A larger bank group could make it easier for Qivalis to reach corporate clients, integrate with existing treasury relationships and secure on-ramps and off-ramps between traditional bank accounts and tokenized settlement channels.

The Qivalis model is also different from the dominant stablecoin structure in global crypto markets. Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC became systemically important within crypto trading by offering deep liquidity and near-continuous settlement in dollar terms. Qivalis is trying to build a euro version with bank sponsorship and European regulatory compliance from the outset. Its competitive challenge will be to deliver enough liquidity and usability to overcome the fact that many digital-asset users already treat dollar stablecoins as the default settlement asset.

The FT report said Qivalis views the backing of established banks as a central advantage. That distribution could be particularly important in corporate and institutional use cases, where compliance, redemption certainty, reserve quality and counterparty confidence are more important than simply having a token listed on crypto exchanges. Banks already sit inside corporate cash-management processes, trade-finance relationships and regulated securities markets, giving them potential channels for stablecoin adoption that crypto-native issuers do not control.

At the same time, the project is entering a sensitive policy debate. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has repeatedly warned that stablecoins could affect monetary sovereignty, financial stability and the singleness of money if private tokens grow too large or become widely used outside the reach of central bank money. In a May 8 speech on stablecoins and the future of money, Lagarde argued that the policy question is not only whether private tokens can improve payments, but whether settlement in digital markets remains anchored in central bank money.

Those concerns help explain why the Qivalis project is likely to be scrutinized as both a fintech initiative and a monetary-policy test case. A euro stablecoin backed by banks may answer part of Europe’s sovereignty concern by reducing dependence on dollar tokens, but it could also raise questions about the migration of deposits, reserve composition, redemption mechanics and the potential scale of private digital money. Regulators will need to assess whether the structure supports innovation without weakening bank funding or creating new run risks.

MiCA gives Europe a more developed stablecoin rulebook than many other major jurisdictions, but compliance alone does not guarantee market adoption. Issuers must still convince users that the token is liquid, redeemable, operationally resilient and widely accepted. In payments and settlement, reliability is often more important than novelty. Qivalis’ bank backing may help address trust, but it will also require technical integration with wallets, custodians, trading venues, banking systems and enterprise software.

The company has already moved to build that infrastructure. In April, Qivalis announced plans to use Fireblocks technology to support its MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin. Fireblocks said the platform would support tokenization, wallet infrastructure and custody capabilities, with the stablecoin intended for 24/7 cross-border settlement, programmable payments, treasury operations, trade finance and securities settlement. The selection of an established digital-asset infrastructure provider underscored that Qivalis is targeting institutional-grade use cases, not only retail crypto transactions.

The strategic opening is clear. Cross-border payments remain expensive and operationally fragmented in many corridors, particularly when transactions pass through multiple banks and time zones. Stablecoins can provide near-instant transfer of tokenized value, which could reduce settlement delays and improve liquidity management. For companies managing euro cash across markets, a regulated token could eventually offer a tool for moving funds outside conventional banking hours, provided compliance checks, redemption arrangements and reporting obligations are embedded in the system.

Atomic settlement is another key use case. In tokenized securities markets, atomic settlement refers to the simultaneous exchange of assets and cash-like instruments, reducing settlement risk by ensuring both legs of a transaction complete together. A euro stablecoin accepted by regulated banks and market infrastructure providers could become a settlement asset for tokenized bonds, funds or other digital instruments. That use case is particularly relevant as banks and exchanges test blockchain-based settlement models for institutional finance.

However, the project will face competition from existing euro-denominated stablecoins and from other forms of digital money. Circle already offers EURC, while Société Générale’s Forge unit has developed a euro stablecoin for institutional markets. The European Central Bank is also pursuing digital euro work for retail payments and central bank money settlement options for wholesale distributed-ledger platforms. Tokenized deposits, commercial bank money tokens and central bank digital settlement assets could all compete with or complement private stablecoins.

The central commercial question is whether banks will actively use Qivalis or merely support it as an option. Stablecoin markets reward liquidity concentration, and users tend to favor the asset that counterparties already accept. A consortium of 37 banks gives Qivalis a larger starting network, but actual transaction volume will depend on pricing, interoperability, exchange access, corporate adoption and the ability to move between tokenized euros and bank deposits with minimal friction.

There is also a balance-sheet dimension. Stablecoins typically require reserves that support redemption at par. Depending on the final structure, those reserves may be held in bank deposits, short-dated government securities or other high-quality liquid assets. For banks, the design will matter because a successful stablecoin could either generate new fee-based payment activity or shift some deposits into tokenized instruments. European regulators have already warned that rapid growth in stablecoins could affect deposit dynamics if users move large balances from conventional accounts to private digital tokens.

Qivalis appears to be positioning the stablecoin as infrastructure for specific financial uses rather than a mass-market substitute for everyday bank money. That distinction is important. Domestic payment systems in Europe are already efficient in many areas, including instant-payment schemes and card networks. The stronger business case for a euro stablecoin may lie in cross-border settlement, institutional markets, digital-asset trading, treasury mobility and programmable payment workflows where conventional rails still have speed, availability or reconciliation limitations.

The broader geopolitical context is also relevant. U.S. policymakers have become more supportive of dollar stablecoins as a way to extend dollar usage in digital markets, while Europe has emphasized strategic autonomy in payments and financial infrastructure. If dollar tokens become the default settlement layer for tokenized finance, European institutions could find themselves dependent on non-European issuers, U.S. regulatory choices and dollar liquidity even for activity involving European clients. A bank-backed euro stablecoin is one way to reduce that dependency, though it will need scale to matter.

The backing from 37 banks therefore changes the perception of Qivalis from a niche consortium project into a potentially significant European payments initiative. It does not remove the operational, regulatory and commercial hurdles, but it gives the company a broader platform for distribution and credibility. For the fintech sector, the development signals that stablecoin infrastructure is no longer only a crypto-company business. It is increasingly becoming a field where regulated banks, central banks, payment networks and software providers are all trying to define the next layer of digital money.

If Qivalis wins Dutch authorization and launches on schedule, its first year will likely be judged less by headline membership numbers than by transaction use. Market participants will watch whether the token is adopted by exchanges, liquidity providers, corporate treasury clients, remittance partners and tokenized-asset platforms. They will also watch whether the 37 supporting banks integrate it into client-facing services or treat it as a strategic option while awaiting clearer demand.

For now, the significance of the latest backing is that Europe’s banking sector is moving from policy discussion to product formation. The Qivalis stablecoin may not displace dollar tokens in the global crypto market quickly, but it gives European banks a coordinated vehicle to test whether regulated euro digital money can compete in payments and settlement. In a market where network effects are decisive, the addition of 37 bank supporters gives the project a more serious starting point than most euro stablecoin efforts have had to date.