European banks choose Fireblocks to launch their euro stablecoin

European banking is accelerating in the stablecoin field. The Qivalis consortium, now presented as a group of 12 major European banks, has chosen Fireblocks to build the infrastructure of a euro stablecoin compliant with MiCA, aiming for a launch in the second half of 2026 under Dutch supervision.

A banking offensive that becomes concrete

The euro stablecoin is no longer just a conference project. With Fireblocks, Qivalis moves to concreteness and equips itself with a partner responsible for tokenization, cash management, and the asset’s lifecycle. In other words, banks now want a ready-to-operate tool, not just a regulatory promise.

This step matters because the project does not come out of nowhere. As early as September 2025, several major European banks had grouped together to launch a euro stablecoin issuer, before BNP Paribas joined and Qivalis was officially established in Amsterdam. The choice of a supervised structure as an electronic money institution shows a desire to follow traditional finance routes.

Banks no longer want to watch the market from the sidelines. They want to offer themselves a stablecoin backed by the euro, usable for issuance, custody, payments, and certain settlement flows. The project primarily targets institutional uses, where speed, traceability, and permanent availability truly matter.

Behind the stablecoin, a monetary battle

This project responds to a now very visible imbalance. The global stablecoin market now exceeds 320 billion dollars, and the sector’s gravity remains largely on the greenback side. Tether alone dominates a large part of the market, while euro versions remain tiny.

This is precisely what Paris is aiming for. On April 17, Roland Lescure called for more euro-indexed stablecoins to reduce European dependence on infrastructures dominated by the United States. His message was not merely decorative. He explicitly supported the idea that a digital euro asset could become a sovereignty tool in payments.

The interesting point is that this vision does not directly oppose the digital euro. Denis Beau, at the Bank of France, advocates a broader layering: central bank money, tokenized deposits, and euro stablecoins issued by European players. In short, Europe is looking less for “its crypto” and more for a digital monetary architecture it can still govern.

MiCA reassures but does not close the debate

The MiCA framework gives the project a serious foundation. Qivalis aims for authorization under the supervision of the Dutch central bank, and Fireblocks highlights built-in compliance modules such as KYC, AML, sanctions filtering, and stricter governance mechanisms. For systemic banks, this is not a detail. It’s the entry condition.

But MiCA does not solve everything. Denis Beau himself considers that the text only partially covers risks associated with the rise of stablecoins issued by non-European actors. He therefore pushes for a tightening of the framework, notably to limit the use of non-euro-denominated stablecoins in daily payments and to reduce regulatory blind spots.

The BIS holds an equally cautious discourse. Pablo Hernández de Cos reminded on April 20 that runs on stablecoins could cause market tensions, and added that some large issuers sometimes resemble investment products more than currency. This reminder comes just as Europe wants to show that a banking stablecoin can offer a more predictable profile.