Twenty-one major banks and asset managers, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citi, committed to creating a company that will issue a U.S. dollar stablecoin, with a launch targeted for the first half of 2027. The group, now spanning North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, has more than doubled from the initial ten banks announced in October 2025. This token is not a central bank digital currency: it is a private liability backed by reserves held by the banks themselves, with no Federal Reserve balance sheet involved. The first targeted applications are cross-border payments and digital asset settlement. Circle shares fell roughly 6% following the announcement as investors priced in fresh bank-backed competition for USDC.
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