Qivalis Expands to 37 Banks as Euro Stablecoin Nears Issuance

A 37-bank consortium spanning 15 countries is preparing to issue a euro stablecoin after Qivalis, the Amsterdam-based joint venture behind the project, secured electronic money institution authorization from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, with issuance, distribution, and redemption permissions effective Oct. 13.

Qivalis counts ING, BNP Paribas, BBVA, and DZ BANK among its participants, according to its Oct. 14 announcement. The consortium added 25 institutions in May, growing from 12 members to the current 37 across 15 countries.

The planned token would support payments, settlement, and tokenized assets. Qivalis plans a full-reserve model, with each token backed 1:1 by reserves, and would handle issuance and redemption under its own authorizations and technology. The DNB register lists the venture's permitted activities and places it under ongoing central bank supervision.

How does custody work across the consortium?

Individual banks could retain custody or delegate it to another provider, Ripple explained in a Nov. 9 assessment highlighting how its custody services fit into the bank-led stablecoin effort. Ripple's technology connects with banking software through application programming interfaces, which let systems exchange data and instructions. Software-defined policies — rules enforced by software — govern access, approvals, separation of duties, and jurisdictional controls.

Two consortium members illustrate the range of custody arrangements. BBVA's custody agreement with Ripple supported bitcoin and ether services for retail customers in Spain, with the bank retaining control of its cryptographic keys and responsibility for protecting client assets. The relationship also extends to custody operations in Switzerland and Turkey.

DZ BANK, the central institution of a German cooperative banking group, took a different path. It selected the custody platform of Metaco, a Swiss custody technology provider Ripple acquired in 2023, for institutional digital asset services. The German bank sought to handle crypto securities under the country's Electronic Securities Act within established capital-market processes.

The Nov. 9 assessment described integration with DZ BANK's existing asset-management and custody operations. One early application involved a Siemens tokenized bond held by DZ BANK and Union Investment, a German asset manager. The examples — retail crypto holdings on one side, institutional securities on the other — map out the distinct use cases Ripple's technology serves across the consortium.

What happens next?

Qivalis would not set custody terms for member institutions. Individual banks determine their own customer custody arrangements, including whether to keep custody in-house or use another provider, per the Oct. 14 announcement.

Distribution would run through eligible banks, exchanges, payment providers, and financial market infrastructure participants. Issuance is planned within the coming months, subject to applicable Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation requirements and publication of the venture's white paper.