Crypto
21 of the World's Biggest Banks Just Agreed to Build Their Own Stablecoin
A consortium including Goldman Sachs, Citi, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and UBS is planning a joint dollar stablecoin — a sign traditional finance now sees the space as core infrastructure, not something to route around.
Twenty-one of the world's largest banks and asset managers announced plans to form a joint venture to issue a US dollar stablecoin, targeting a market launch in the first half of 2027. The same week, Singapore's central bank opened a public consultation on its own stablecoin licensing regime — two separate signals pointing the same direction.
For years, stablecoins were largely a crypto-native product built specifically to operate alongside, not through, the traditional banking system. A consortium this size — anchored by household names most people already bank with — building one from inside that system is a meaningfully different signal: the category has shifted from disruption banks needed to defend against to infrastructure they'd rather own outright.
The timing lines up with a broader regulatory shift. Frameworks mandating full reserve backing, licensed issuers, and guaranteed redemption rights have taken hold across seven major economies in 2026, and the global stablecoin market has grown to roughly $300 billion — large enough that incumbents no longer see it as safe to ignore.
A bank-issued dollar stablecoin entering a market that already has established players is the kind of structural shift that plays out over months of market-share jockeying, not a single trading session — closer to the territory Long Term's 48-hour window is built for than a same-day call.