Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Santander Move Forward…

More than a dozen major banks including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Santander are moving forward with plans for a jointly developed stablecoin that could operate across public blockchains and compete with crypto-native payment tokens. The consortium is considering launching a token initially backed one-to-one by U.S. dollars before expanding into euros and potentially other Group of Seven currencies, according to The Wall Street Journal. The initiative remains under development and no launch date has been announced. The banks are primarily evaluating commercial applications, with potential use cases expected to differ across individual markets.The project represents a significant evolution from an initiative publicly announced in October 2025, when 10 international banks said they were jointly exploring a reserve-backed form of digital money denominated in G7 currencies. That original group consisted of Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, MUFG, Santander, TD Bank and UBS. The banks said the proposed asset would operate on public blockchains while complying with regulatory and risk-management requirements.

Bank Consortium Expands as Stablecoin Competition Accelerates

The latest development indicates that the project has moved beyond its initial 10-bank configuration. The Journal reports that more than a dozen financial institutions are now involved, including Wells Fargo, which was not named among the 10 institutions in the October announcement. The expansion comes as stablecoins increasingly threaten to move payment activity and customer balances outside traditional banking infrastructure.The global stablecoin market has grown beyond $300 billion, dominated by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC. Unlike conventional bank deposits, stablecoins can generally move between compatible wallets and applications across public blockchain networks around the clock. Banks increasingly see that interoperability as commercially valuable. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has repeatedly said the lender is prepared to enter the stablecoin market once customer demand and regulatory conditions justify doing so. Wells Fargo is simultaneously developing its own tokenized-deposit infrastructure. On August 4, the bank announced a blockchain-based deposit product for corporate and commercial customers, beginning with limited U.S. dollar-to-British pound transactions this fall before broader expansion during 2027. That product is distinct from the consortium’s proposed stablecoin.

Banks Debate Stablecoins Versus Tokenized Deposits

The distinction reflects a broader strategic debate inside global banking. Tokenized deposits represent existing commercial-bank deposits on blockchain infrastructure. They remain liabilities of the issuing bank and can preserve existing regulatory protections and relationships. Stablecoins, by contrast, are separately issued digital assets backed by reserve holdings and can potentially circulate more freely across public blockchains. Many banks are pursuing both approaches.In June, The Clearing House announced a separate initiative supported by Bank of America and other major financial institutions to provide on-chain clearing and settlement of tokenized commercial-bank deposits. That network will connect blockchain activity with existing payment systems including RTP and CHIPS and is intended to enable programmable, 24-hour settlement while keeping money inside the regulated banking system. The bank-led stablecoin consortium goes further by exploring a digital asset capable of circulating on public blockchain networks. Regulatory developments have helped make that possibility more realistic. The U.S. GENIUS Act established a federal framework for payment stablecoins in 2025, while jurisdictions including Hong Kong and the European Union have introduced their own regulated issuance regimes.Banks nevertheless remain concerned about the effect stablecoins could have on deposits, particularly if legislation ultimately allows issuers or intermediaries to offer holders yield. The tension helps explain why traditional lenders are simultaneously lobbying over stablecoin rules and developing competing products of their own. JPMorgan is separately evaluating its options. The Journal reports that the largest U.S. bank has held preliminary discussions about issuing a stablecoin, although a spokeswoman said JPMorgan currently has no active stablecoin product in development and would respond to customer demand and regulatory developments. The more than dozen-bank consortium therefore represents one of the largest coordinated attempts by traditional finance to enter a market currently dominated by crypto-native issuers. If the project progresses from development to issuance, a dollar stablecoin backed by some of the world’s largest banks could provide institutional users with a public-blockchain payment asset carrying the compliance infrastructure and balance-sheet relationships of conventional finance. For now, however, the initiative remains a project under development rather than a confirmed product launch. The critical next steps will be determining the issuing structure, reserve model, blockchain networks, regulatory treatment and timetable for bringing the proposed bank-backed stablecoin into circulation.