As of Decrypt’s November 11, 2026 report, a group of global banks planning a joint dollar stablecoin had committed operating money to a company that had not yet issued a token. The commitment is funding for a business, not a disclosed reserve behind coins in circulation.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the banks had committed around $270 million. Decrypt identified Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Banco Santander, and Deutsche Bank among the institutions backing the effort. A spokesperson for the project declined to comment. Santander and Deutsche Bank also declined. Goldman and Citi referred questions to the project.
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 was still searching for a chief executive, and its final name remained under discussion. No issued token, redemption terms, reserve composition, attestation, or audit was described.
Decrypt framed the funding as the next step after an initiative that first went public late last year. As Decrypt had previously reported, 21 of the world’s largest financial institutions committed in September to form a company to issue a U.S. dollar stablecoin, with a target launch in the first half of 2027 and 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. Decrypt said it spans North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Beyond the four institutions named by Bloomberg, Decrypt’s account of participants includes Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fidelity Investments, PNC, Capital One, TD Bank, UBS, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, and MUFG, among others. JPMorgan, notably, is not on the list.
Decrypt placed the venture among several collaborative moves by established finance into a market long dominated by crypto-native issuers. Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are among more than 100 companies backing the issuer Open Standard. European banks have formed Qivalis to issue a euro-denominated coin.
On market share, Decrypt reported that 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. Those figures are market-size context from the report, not reserve disclosures for Project Faro. When the bank consortium first went public in September, Circle’s stock fell about 6%, which Decrypt attributed to investors pricing in possible 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 associated with round-the-clock, cross-border payments at lower cost than traditional rails. That is a stated commercial bet, not evidence that a token is cheaper, always redeemable, insured, or guaranteed.
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. Design intent is not the same as a launched product operating under those regimes.
Project Faro remained pre-launch: no issued token, no named CEO, and no final name, with a 2027 target that Decrypt said leaves room for delay. The reported shift is the roughly $270 million operating commitment, sourced to people familiar with the matter via Bloomberg, toward competing to issue an onchain dollar rather than leaving that business to crypto-native issuers.
Original report: Decrypt, November 11, 2026.
