Goldman Sachs and Citi Back Stablecoin Venture With $270 Million

Banks Cover Five Years of Operating Costs

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Santander and Deutsche Bank are among the financial firms that have committed roughly $270 million to a jointly built stablecoin venture, according to people familiar with the matter. The money is earmarked for operating costs at a new company expected to be incorporated in the United States, and the commitment covers the planned issuer's first five years of business. Twenty-one institutions belong to the consortium, which announced on Sept. 1 that its members had agreed to establish the company during the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions. Its stated launch window is the first half of 2027.

The membership published with the September announcement spans banks, investment managers and other financial institutions from North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Africa. North American participants include Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo and WisdomTree. The European contingent consists of Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank and UBS, while MUFG Bank, Sirius International Holding and Standard Bank represent East Asia, the Middle East and Africa respectively.

The disclosure assigns no individual funding amounts or ownership percentages to participants and names no lead shareholder; it lists the institutions backing the project and stops there. The group's origins reach back to October 2025, when ten banks began exploring digital money backed one-to-one by reserves and available on public blockchains. By September 2026 membership had grown to 21 institutions and the group had fixed a timetable for forming the operating company.

Project Faro Targets a Dollar Token First

The venture operates under the name Project Faro. Its first product is a dollar-denominated token, with currencies from the wider Group of Seven on the longer-term roadmap and a euro offering given priority. Named use cases include cross-border payments and the settlement of digital assets, aimed at wholesale, institutional and retail customer segments. The September release describes the proposed product as a trusted form of digital money, but it leaves key details open: the company's public name is deferred to a later disclosure, and the statement does not identify a token ticker, supported blockchain networks, the reserve custodian, or the legal entity that would issue a future euro token.

The regulatory perimeter is taking shape around it. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025, and the White House fact sheet describes a federal framework for payment stablecoins: full reserve backing with liquid assets such as dollars or short-term Treasury securities, monthly public disclosure of reserve composition, and marketing restrictions that bar claims of federal insurance, government backing or legal-tender status. Holders receive priority over other creditors if an issuer becomes insolvent, and issuers must hold the technical ability to seize, freeze or burn tokens when legally required. On Oct. 21, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published a final rule implementing the act for entities in its jurisdiction, effective Jan. 18, 2027; its standards cover permitted activities, reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits, reporting and supervision, along with custody, issuer applications, capital requirements and an operational backstop. Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering and KYC obligations will follow through separate rulemaking coordinated with the Treasury Department. The consortium says it intends to comply with the GENIUS Act and, where applicable, the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, though no issuing license or regulatory approval has been announced.

Where Project Faro Sits Among Rivals

The shape of the commitment says as much as the size: underwriting five years of operating costs is a runway pledge rather than a one-off equity check, and with no lead shareholder or capital split disclosed, governance of the future issuer stays unresolved until the group publishes those details. Timing also lines up with supervision, since the OCC's rule takes effect on Jan. 18, 2027, inside the consortium's own launch window. Project Faro is not entering empty ground either: Open USD, announced in June with more than 140 companies including Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock, is already building a dollar token on a broad corporate base. The banks' reserve-first framing also marks a contrast with the yield-bearing stablecoin structures some crypto platforms offer, and with a central bank digital currency, which a monetary authority would issue directly rather than through a private issuer.