Sabadell joins Qivalis; Bankinter in talks on euro stablecoin

At a press conference Tuesday, Banco Sabadell announced it will join Qivalis, the European banking consortium developing a regulated euro-pegged stablecoin. Bankinter is in advanced talks to participate. Outgoing Sabadell CEO César Gonzalez-Bueno told reporters the token is intended to make transactions more efficient and secure and called it “a European project that we believe makes sense.” Gonzalez-Bueno will step down later this year when Marc Armengol becomes CEO; Sabadell said the bank’s commitment to Qivalis will continue under the new leadership. Unlisted Spanish banks Abanca, Kutxabank and Cecabank are also reported to be in discussions.

Qivalis was incorporated in Amsterdam in December 2025 by nine European banks and expanded soon after. Its membership now includes Banca Sella, BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Danske Bank, DekaBank, DZ BANK, ING, KBC, Raiffeisen Bank International, SEB and UniCredit. The consortium is led by CEO Jan-Oliver Sell, the former head of Coinbase Germany, and has Sir Howard Davies as chairman of the supervisory board. Fireblocks has been confirmed as the technical infrastructure provider for token issuance.

The Qivalis token will be backed one-to-one by euros. At least 40% of reserves will be held in bank deposits, with the remainder invested in short-term, high-quality euro-area sovereign bonds. Holders are expected to have access to 24/7 redemption. The consortium has applied to the Dutch central bank for an Electronic Money Institution license under the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, MiCA, a process the group expects to take roughly six to nine months.

Consortium members point to a large gap in onchain euro liquidity. Dollar-denominated stablecoins dominate the market: Tether’s USDT has about $189 billion in market value and Circle’s USDC about $78 billion. By contrast, euro-denominated stablecoins remain much smaller: Circle’s EURC sits in the low-to-mid $400 million range and Société Générale’s EURCV is roughly $124 million.

Jan-Oliver Sell warned that without deeper euro liquidity onchain, market activity will continue to concentrate around U.S. dollar tokens. He noted the euro represents roughly 20% to 25% of global fiat flows but only about 0.2% of global stablecoin flows.

The European Central Bank’s planned digital euro is not expected before 2029, giving Qivalis several years to establish a MiCA-compliant euro-denominated stablecoin. Several European banks have favored a shared, regulated approach rather than issuing standalone tokens; BBVA abandoned a separate plan and opted to join the consortium.