A group of global banks has committed about $270 million to a joint dollar stablecoin venture dubbed Project Faro, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Banco Santander and Deutsche Bank are among the backers. The money is meant to cover five years of operating costs for a planned company incorporated in the United States that will issue a dollar-denominated stablecoin.
A project spokesperson, Santander and Deutsche Bank declined to comment, and Goldman and Citi referred questions to the project. The consortium's own September announcement did not disclose a funding figure, individual contributions, a token name, a blockchain or reserve arrangements, so the $270 million rests on Bloomberg's sources.
Blockhead covered the consortium's announcement when 21 banks committed to a joint stablecoin venture in September. The group targets a launch in the first half of 2027 with a dollar token first and a euro version identified as a priority for expansion. Its stated aim is to serve wholesale, institutional and retail markets under the GENIUS Act and, where relevant, the EU's MiCA regime.
Its North American members are Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, Wells Fargo and WisdomTree. The European members are Santander, BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank and UBS. MUFG Bank, Sirius International Holding and Standard Bank represent East Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
MUFG is the group's only member from East Asia, and it sits in two stablecoin efforts at once. Blockhead reported in June that Japan's megabanks were moving toward joint stablecoin issuance , and in August that MUFG wanted Japan's bond market settling in seconds . Whether the dollar token serves Asian clients, and in what form, has not been described.
Banks are not betting on one route. Members including BBVA and Rabobank also back rival stablecoin efforts,. Visa, Mastercard and Stripe are among the more than 100 companies supporting the separate Open USD issuer, which Blockhead reported going live in October . Several of the consortium's banks are also testing tokenized deposits, as with the shared deposit network JPMorgan, Citi and other US banks plan for 2027 .
The market they would enter is shrinking. Total stablecoin supply fell to about $300 billion, a year-to-date low, according to Crypto.com's market update , so the new issuer would be competing for share of a market that has stopped growing.
The first marker is confirmation from the group on the $270 million raise, along with more information about the issuing entity and chain it will run on. The next are the issuer's regulator and charter, its reserve policy, and the 2027 launch date, which leaves room for delay. For Asia, the open question is whether MUFG's role extends beyond the dollar token to a yen product.
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