- Project Faro has secured about $270 million from 21 financial institutions.
- The venture aims to launch a US dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027.
- Several participating banks are also involved in Open USD and Qivalis.
Project Faro is moving ahead with support from a consortium of 21 financial institutions that have committed about $270 million to the stablecoin initiative. The project is backed by major banks including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and BBVA, and it is intended to operate as a stablecoin issuer. According to Bloomberg, the funding is expected to cover five years of operations for the new company. The current plan is to launch a US dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027, with a euro-backed coin expected to follow. People familiar with the matter said the company is expected to be incorporated in the United States.
Project Faro funding and launch plan
A consortium of 21 financial institutions has committed around $270 million to Project Faro. The initiative was first announced in September, and the new funding is intended to support five years of operations for the company behind it. The project plans to act as a stablecoin issuer rather than only providing supporting infrastructure.
The first product is expected to be a US dollar stablecoin targeted for the first half of 2027. Bloomberg reported that the broader plan includes issuing stablecoins pegged to the currencies of all G7 countries. After the dollar launch, a euro-backed coin is expected to follow. While many details remain limited, people familiar with the matter said the company is expected to be incorporated in the US.
Banks behind Project Faro
The group backing Project Faro includes Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank and BBVA. The participation of these banks places the initiative among the larger traditional finance efforts now forming around stablecoins. The source describes the project as backed by big banks, with the consortium aiming to enter stablecoin issuance directly.
Several of the same institutions are also involved in other projects. BBVA is part of Faro as well as Open USD and Qivalis. Rabobank is also a Faro member and joined Qivalis in May, when that euro-focused consortium added 25 banks to reach 37 members. BNP Paribas was among the 10 banks that first explored what became Faro in October 2025 and later joined Qivalis.
Competing stablecoin efforts and market position
Project Faro is not developing in isolation. Similar efforts include Stripe-led Open USD, which counts Visa among its founding partners, and Qivalis, a European banking consortium seeking to challenge the dominance of US dollar-pegged stablecoins. The overlap among members shows that traditional financial institutions are taking positions across several initiatives rather than choosing only one.
Qivalis has already made regulatory progress. It received authorization from the Dutch central bank as an electronic money institution in October 2026. The consortium is preparing to launch a fully regulated euro-denominated stablecoin, with plans to use it for payments, cross-border settlements and tokenized asset transactions. The source says this multi-project approach allows banks to explore different methods of issuing and distributing digital currencies while keeping a role in future payment and settlement infrastructure.
Project Faro faces a concentrated stablecoin market
Despite growing institutional interest, Project Faro is entering a market where two crypto-native issuers account for most of the activity. According to DefiLlama data cited in the source, Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC made up about 85% of the roughly $290 billion stablecoin market as of Nov. 10. USDT had an approximate market capitalization of $176.3 billion, while USDC stood at about $70.4 billion.
The source notes that distribution could become one advantage for the bank-backed venture. Faro’s participating institutions already have established banking customers, payment networks and relationships with businesses and financial institutions. Rather than building an entirely new customer base, the consortium could use those existing relationships to introduce a new stablecoin to additional users, including retail users. Open USD is pursuing a similar strategy through a shared stablecoin infrastructure involving payment providers, banks, financial technology companies and merchants.
Conclusion
Project Faro has emerged as a bank-backed stablecoin venture with about $270 million in committed funding and a target to launch a US dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027. The consortium includes major financial institutions and plans a broader lineup that could cover all G7 currencies, with a euro-backed coin expected after the dollar launch. At the same time, several participating banks are also active in rival projects such as Open USD and Qivalis, showing that institutions are spreading their involvement across multiple efforts. Project Faro will enter a market still heavily dominated by USDT and USDC, but its backers bring existing customer networks and payment relationships that could support distribution.
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