Goldman Sachs, BofA Among 21 Banks Planning Joint Dollar Stablecoin Launch

In brief

• Twenty-one banks and asset managers, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citi, committed Tuesday to form a company that will issue a U.S. dollar stablecoin, targeting a first-half 2027 launch.
• The group has more than doubled since an initial 10-bank exploration first announced in October 2025, and now spans North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
• Circle shares fell roughly 6% Tuesday as investors priced in fresh bank-backed competition for USDC.

Twenty-one of the world's largest financial institutions committed Tuesday to build a company that will issue a U.S. dollar stablecoin. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citi anchor the group, according to a joint statement. The company doesn't have a name yet, and its formation, planned for the second half of 2026, is still subject to closing conditions.

It's worth being precise about what this isn't. A CBDC is a direct liability of a central bank—digital cash the Federal Reserve itself would issue and stand behind. This consortium's token is the opposite: a private liability of a commercial company, backed by reserves the banks hold themselves, with no Fed balance sheet involved.

The distinction has teeth in the U.S. specifically, since President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 banning federal agencies from developing or issuing a CBDC, while explicitly directing the government to back private, dollar-pegged stablecoins instead. So a bank-issued stablecoin isn't necessarily a backdoor CBDC—it's the exact alternative Washington chose over one.