This year is marked by stablecoins. Starting with the GENIUS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins) act that was passed in the USA this summer and which represents, as the American authorities call it, a “revolutionary” change in the American financial system, now a European revolutionary step in the matter of stablecoins has been presented.
Namely, at a press conference in Amsterdam, Qivalis was presented, a consortium of ten European banks, which founded a company of the same name based in Amsterdam and which will launch a stablecoin linked to the euro.
Jan-Oliver Sell, former director of Coinbase Germany and partner in Angel Invest, was appointed CEO of Qivalis, who stated that as much as $250 billion is “lying” in stablecoins globally, while according to the European Central Bank’s estimates, 0.2 percent of it is in euros.
– We see a great opportunity because there is no reason why the European market should be smaller than the American one. We just need to approach it in the right way – said Sell at the press conference.
Central banks throughout the EU believe that there should be tokenized money, so the founders of the consortium determined that they should enter the world of stablecoins, reports Bankar me. By the way, the current members of the consortium are: Italian UniCredit, Sella, Swedish SEB, Raiffeisen Bank, Belgian KBC, French BNP Paribas, Spanish CaixaBank, Danske Bank, German Deka and Dutch ING.
And why exactly did the banks start a consortium? Precisely in order to maximize the possibility that individuals can enter the stablecoin market through their banks, say representatives of the consortium.
– The EU has good regulations and this consortium suits it well. We have applied for authorization and are currently working on it. We launched this project in order for European stablecoins to become an important part of the financial sector – said Sell, quoted by Lidermedia.hr.
The newly elected CFO of Qivalis, Floris Lugt, emphasized that this is an open consortium, and invited more banks to join them.
– Blockchain technology allows us to open new markets. As banks, we are in a position to enable this to be a secure payment method – said Lugt, adding that there is a market for stablecoins and that they are relatively easy to create, so he believes that this project will also take off quickly.
Lugt emphasized that it will take them a year to launch a stablecoin that “lies” on the euro and that they will have good feedback from citizens, especially because banks have more trust than fintechs that offer their stablecoins.
– Banks enable fast implementation, we already have a client base, so we are a natural distribution channel for the growth of this financial instrument – concluded Lugt.
