TL;DR
- BBVA joined the Qivalis consortium, a joint venture of 12 European banks with $800 billion in assets, to issue a euro-pegged stablecoin.
- The stablecoin will enable native euro settlement for cross-border payments and tokenized assets.
- Qivalis will operate as shared infrastructure with solvency, governance, and customer protection standards.
BBVA joined the Qivalis consortium, a Amsterdam-based joint venture formed by European banks to issue a euro-pegged stablecoin under the MiCA regulatory framework. The project brings together approximately 12 banks, totaling around $800 billion in assets. Participants include BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, and CaixaBank.
Qivalis aims to launch the euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026. The expected deployment date is July 1, 2026, when MiCA will require licenses to operate stablecoin infrastructure in the European Union. The joint venture is currently seeking authorization as an Electronic Money Institution from the Dutch central bank, which will allow immediate regulatory compliance at launch.
The Stablecoin Is Expected to Launch Around July 1, 2026
The stablecoin is designed to allow native euro settlement for payments and tokenized assets, such as bonds and funds, without routing through dollar-denominated stablecoins. The system will enable near-instant cross-border payments and settlement of digital assets directly from the bank accounts of companies and self-employed professionals. It will integrate into the existing banking infrastructure, offering interoperability among consortium banks and preventing liquidity fragmentation across issuers.
BBVA and the consortium banks aim to maintain solvency, governance, and customer protection standards in line with MiCA. The stablecoin will operate as shared infrastructure, unifying liquidity and establishing a common standard for payments and on-chain settlement across Europe.
BBVA and the Qivalis Consortium Aim to Challenge Dollar-Pegged Stablecoins
BBVA’s participation brings Spanish representation to the initiative and positions the bank within the institutional euro payment infrastructure, separate from its retail crypto offerings such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The joint venture integrates all services within a regulated framework supervised by European authorities, unifying both capital and risk management.
The consortium seeks to provide an institutional stablecoin model that supports issuance, settlement, and payments of tokenized assets, preserves interoperability among banks, and provides direct access to euro settlement rails. The stablecoin will function as a centralized and regulated instrument within the European banking infrastructure.
BBVA and the other Qivalis member banks are preparing for the new regulatory conditions in Europe, aiming to compete and end the dominance of U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins
