HedgeCo.Net — A consortium of 21 financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Banco Santander and Deutsche Bank has committed about $270 million to a joint stablecoin venture known as Project Faro, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The money is intended to cover five years of operating costs for a new company that will issue a dollar-denominated stablecoin.
The venture is expected to be incorporated in the U.S. and is targeting a launch of its dollar token in the first half of 2027. It also plans stablecoins pegged to other Group of Seven currencies, with a euro token as the priority. The operating commitment is separate from the reserves that will back the coins. Project Faro is a working name; the group is still searching for a chief executive and settling on a corporate identity.
The initiative began in 2025 with a smaller group of banks studying reserve-backed digital money on public blockchains and expanded to 21 institutions, which announced their plans in September. Reported participants include Wells Fargo, Fidelity Investments, UBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Bank of America, MUFG and Standard Bank. JPMorgan is notably not among them, according to Decrypt.
The consortium said earlier that the product would serve wholesale, institutional and retail use cases, including cross-border payments and digital asset settlement, combining bank-grade compliance and risk management with distribution through member institutions. It enters a crowded field: Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC hold about 85% of the stablecoin market, and rival bank efforts include the euro-focused Qivalis consortium.
For digital asset funds and institutional investors, a bank-issued dollar token could become a settlement asset for tokenized funds and collateral, if it can match incumbents on liquidity and blockchain reach. Key details remain undisclosed, including which networks it will use, reserve custody and redemption arrangements, and the final ownership structure.