• The first issuance, planned for the second half of 2026, will support the future development of new payment services that are faster, cheaper and more secure
  • Elena Carrera, Chief Operations & Technology Officer at Banco Sabadell, notes: “Qivalis represents an excellent business opportunity and will help us continue deepening our understanding of blockchain technology, which has enormous transformative potential. Participating in Qivalis will enable us to implement future stablecoin use cases that will benefit both our retail and business customers”
  • The company will be supervised by the Dutch central bank, and its digital currency will comply with the requirements of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA)

20 May 2026

Banco Sabadell has joined Qivalis, a consortium of major European financial institutions established at the end of last year to launch a euro-linked stablecoin within a regulated and supervised EU framework. The e-money token, whose first issuance is planned for the second half of 2026, will enable banks to develop, in the future, new payment services that are faster, cheaper and more secure through blockchain technology, while also introducing new clearing and settlement functionalities for digital assets.

Elena Carrera, Chief Operations & Technology Officer at Banco Sabadell, notes: “Banco Sabadell has been monitoring and evaluating potential opportunities in the digital assets space for some time. Qivalis represents an excellent business opportunity and will help us continue deepening our understanding of blockchain technology, which has enormous transformative potential.”

“Participating in Qivalis will enable us to implement future stablecoin use cases that will benefit both our retail and business customers,” Carrera points out.

Qivalis expects to receive authorisation from the central bank of the Netherlands shortly to operate as an e-money institution. Once all regulatory and technological developments have been completed, the consortium plans to begin issuing its stablecoin in the second half of this year (an e-money token designed to maintain a stable value and avoid the volatility associated with other crypto-assets). It will be fully backed by euro reserves (in a 1:1 ratio), as well as fully aligned with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) of the European Union.

Among its possible use cases, Qivalis highlights the possibility of making low-cost, instant cross-border payments available 24/7, with the option to schedule them in advance. In addition, transfers of tokenised and digitalised assets, such as bonds, could be settled automatically, thereby reducing counterparty credit risk.

Broadening of the consortium

With the addition of Banco Sabadell and 24 other organisations, Qivalis now counts 37 financial institutions among its members and has expanded its network across 15 European countries. “We are thrilled to welcome 25 new partners to the Qivalis consortium,” said its CEO, Jan-Oliver Sell.

“This expansion marks a giant leap toward an open and compliant on-chain ecosystem for the euro and shows that the majority of European institutions have already prioritised euro-native on-chain settlement in their digital asset journey. The euro is Europe’s currency, and on-chain financial infrastructure should carry it - built by European institutions and governed by European rules.” he added.

Strategic autonomy

Stablecoins have experienced rapid growth, and their market value is estimated to exceed US$290 billion (over €246 billion). Despite this, euro-linked stablecoins are estimated to account for only 0.2% of the global circulation of these digital currencies, even though the single currency represents between 20% and 25% of global transactions involving traditional currencies.

This makes a project such as Qivalis especially relevant. It aims to facilitate the development of a native and interoperable digital infrastructure for the European financial sector, with the capacity to achieve the necessary scale through the participation of its 37 banking members.

“This infrastructure is essential if Europe is to compete in the global digital economy whilst preserving its strategic autonomy,” Sir Howard Davies, Chairman of Qivalis’ Supervisory Board, pointed out.

“We are not merely building payment rails; we are ensuring that European principles - around data protection, financial stability and regulatory rigour - are embedded into the next generation of digital money. Efficiency in financial infrastructure is ultimately, a matter of sovereignty. The euro’s role in the eurozone’s monetary system will increasingly depend on whether it is present - as the primary settlement currency - on the rails where global value moves.” he commented.