A consortium of nine major European banks, including ING and UniCredit, has announced the formation of a new company to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin. This initiative is a significant move by traditional financial institutions to embrace digital assets and is designed to be compliant with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. The stablecoin is slated for release in the second half of 2026 and aims to provide a low-cost, efficient solution for payments and settlements, directly challenging the dominance of US dollar-backed stablecoins in the European market.

This development comes as the European Central Bank (ECB) continues its own work on a digital euro, which is not expected until 2029. The banks' proactive move signals a strategic effort to establish a private-sector solution before the public digital currency becomes available. In other news, the European Commission's Director General for Financial Stability, John Berrigan, commented that adding Russia to the EU's anti-money laundering (AML) blacklist would be largely “symbolic,” citing that the EU already has strong measures in place.