21 banks including Goldman Sachs and UBS plan a joint stablecoin

21 international financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Bank of America, plan to launch a joint stablecoin, BTC-ECHO reports, aiming to compete directly with Tether and Circle.

• The group has grown from an initial 10 banks that announced in October 2025 they would explore a fully reserve-backed digital payment instrument on public blockchains
• The banks plan to form a joint company by the end of 2026 and bring their first stablecoin to market in the first half of 2027
• The consortium will peg its launch token to the US dollar, then add six more tokens covering other G7 currencies; a euro stablecoin tops that list
• The consortium wants the product to serve both institutional and retail customers, for cross-border payments and digital-asset settlement, while meeting the requirements of both the not-yet-passed US GENIUS Act and the EU's MiCA regulation

The banks are betting their advantage isn't technical. Tether and Circle already dominate stablecoin supply, but neither controls a retail banking relationship with millions of customers, or the compliance infrastructure a regulated bank already runs. A dollar stablecoin issued by Goldman Sachs or Bank of America inherits that distribution and that regulatory standing on day one, something a crypto-native issuer has to build from nothing. What the group has not disclosed matters too: no name for the joint company yet, unclear governance over how 21 competing banks will share control of one token, and no word on which of them will actually issue it once that company exists.

The timing lines up with the regulatory landscape Intokened has tracked shifting this week. Singapore proposed its own 100% reserve rule and a ban on stablecoin yield, aligning itself with the same GENIUS Act framework this bank consortium is designing around. Tether, meanwhile, has two years to bring USDT into GENIUS Act compliance or lose access to the US market the incumbents currently dominate. A bank-issued stablecoin arriving in 2027 would land right as that compliance deadline forces the current market leaders to prove they can meet the same bar.

None of this is running yet. The banks are still moving from a testing phase into a formal company, and a launch date eighteen months out leaves plenty of time for the plan to slip, the currency roadmap to change, or a competitor to move first. But a group this size, with this much existing customer access, doesn't need to win on technology to reshape the stablecoin market. It needs to show up.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice — just information to consider.