Reported November 11, 2026. A group of global banks building a joint stablecoin has committed around $270 million as the venture moves from blueprint to buildout, Decrypt reported, citing Bloomberg.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Banco Santander, and Deutsche Bank are among the institutions backing the effort. The capital is meant to cover five years of operations for a planned U.S.-incorporated company that would issue a dollar-denominated stablecoin.
Participants know the venture as Project Faro. It is still searching for a chief executive, and its final name remains under discussion. A spokesperson for the project declined to comment. Santander and Deutsche Bank declined as well, while Goldman and Citi referred questions to the project.
What was already on the record
Decrypt described the funding as the concrete next step for an initiative that first went public late last year. In earlier reporting cited in the same article, 21 of the world’s largest financial institutions committed in September to form a company to issue a U.S. dollar stablecoin, targeting a launch in the first half of 2027, with a euro version and other currencies to follow.
That consortium had more than doubled from an initial group of 10 banks that began exploring the idea in October 2025. It spans North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Beyond the four banks named by Bloomberg, Decrypt said participants include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fidelity Investments, PNC, Capital One, TD Bank, UBS, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, and MUFG, among others. JPMorgan is not on the list.
Why it drew attention
The venture is one of several collaborative pushes by established finance into a business long dominated by crypto-native issuers. Decrypt noted that Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are among more than 100 companies backing the issuer Open Standard, while European banks have formed Qivalis to issue a euro-denominated coin.
At the time of the report, Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC together accounted for about 85% of a market worth roughly $290 billion, nearly all of it dollar-pegged. When the bank consortium first went public in September, Circle’s stock fell about 6% as investors priced in the prospect of bank-backed competition for USDC.
Decrypt said the banks are betting that institutional trust, regulatory alignment, and existing client networks can win a share of settlement activity that promises round-the-clock, cross-border payments at lower cost than traditional rails.
The token is being designed to comply with the U.S. GENIUS Act, which created the first federal framework for dollar-pegged tokens in 2025, and, where applicable, the EU’s MiCA regime. The group has said it wants the stablecoin used across wholesale, institutional, and retail markets.
What remains unproven
As of Decrypt’s November 11, 2026 report, Project Faro was still pre-launch: no issued token, no named CEO, and no final name. The first-half 2027 target leaves room for delay. The roughly $270 million figure comes from people familiar with the matter, via Bloomberg, not from on-the-record confirmation by the banks that declined or redirected comment.
A funding commitment is not usage, market share, or a finished product. The report does not show that the consortium has taken volume from USDT or USDC, or that the money guarantees a 2027 launch.
Original article: Goldman, Citi and Global Banks Commit $270 Million to Challenge Crypto’s Stablecoin Giants (Decrypt, November 11, 2026).
