Goldman Sachs, BofA and 19 Other Banks Plan Dollar Stablecoin Launch in H1 2027

Wall Street is moving from observation to execution. A consortium of 21 major financial institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citi—said on Sept. 1, 2026, it intends to form a new company and issue a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, targeting a rollout in the first half of 2027. The group framed the initiative as a build-and-launch effort rather than an exploratory study. It expects to advance company formation in the second half of 2026, with a live product to follow. The project began in October 2025 with 10 banks evaluating a reserve-backed digital payment asset that could operate on public blockchains. Since then, participation has expanded to 21 institutions. The planned stablecoin would be fully reserved on a 1:1 basis, with each token backed by an equivalent U.S. dollar held in reserve. Use cases are aimed at wholesale, institutional and retail segments, with emphasis on cross-border payments and digital-asset settlement. The consortium also signaled plans for euro-pegged tokens, indicating an ambition beyond the U.S. market. Regulatory compliance is central to the plan. The group said it will align with the U.S. GENIUS Act and, where applicable, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA). MiCA includes an EU-wide passporting mechanism, allowing an authorized stablecoin to operate across member states without country-by-country licensing. Clearing that standard for a euro-pegged token would provide access to a market spanning hundreds of millions of users via a single approval. In the existing stablecoin landscape, the most immediate competitive tension could be felt by USDC, which has positioned itself as an institution-focused, regulated alternative to Tether. Circle has spent years building ties with traditional finance—relationships that overlap with the space this bank-led consortium is now targeting. For crypto-native traders and DeFi users, the key question is distribution. A bank-consortium stablecoin confined to permissioned banking rails may have limited impact. One that reaches major exchanges and integrates with networks such as Ethereum or Solana could reshape liquidity and settlement in crypto markets.