Qivalis adds 25 European financial institutions and emerges as leading EUR stablecoin contender

Qivalis emerges as Europe’s leading EUR stablecoin contender as 25 more financial institutions, including ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Intesa Sanpaolo and Rabobank, join its consortium

More than three dozen European banks are now backing a single euro stablecoin initiative, reflecting rising concern among policymakers and executives about the implications of USD dominance in crypto markets.

Amsterdam-based Qivalis had already secured support from major banks including BNP Paribas, ING, and UniCredit for its yet-to-launch coin. As of today a total 37 European financial institutions have joined the consortium.

➡️ Why this matters

Stablecoin issuance is ultimately a distribution game. And Europe has been structurally disadvantaged.

Despite over 30 MiCA-licensed players, the market has remained fragmented, with most EUR stablecoins stuck below meaningful scale. Meanwhile, USD leaders like Tether and Circle built dominance early and compounded it through network effects.

The biggest EUR stablecoin is issued by Circle, an US firm, with $450M market.

With broad institutional backing, Qivalis is positioning itself as Europe’s coordinated response to USD stablecoin dominance, turning a previously fragmented landscape into a unified distribution play.

The implications go beyond payments efficiency.

While much of the narrative around stablecoins focuses on faster, cheaper, and more accessible transactions, the second-order effect has been the global expansion of USD monetary influence. Today, roughly 99% of stablecoins are dollar-denominated, effectively exporting USD dominance into digital financial infrastructure.

That is the real driver here.

European banks are not just building a product. They are aligning around monetary sovereignty.

Jan-Oliver Sell, chief executive of Qivalis, told the FT that “the European sovereignty angle” was important with the geopolitical situation making it “attractive for people to think about an alternative to the US dollar”.

The key question now is distribution beyond Europe.

Within the region, this consortium has the reach to give EUR stablecoins a credible foothold for the first time. But competing globally against entrenched USD liquidity networks is a much harder challenge.

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