Banc Sabadell, Bankinter and other banks join the battle for digital money

BarcelonaThe Qivalis consortium, founded by CaixaBank and later joined by BBVA, will soon incorporate more Spanish entities to launch a stablecoin – digital money linked to the euro–, such as Banco Sabadell and Bankiter, which plans to make a final decision in the summer. There is also a possibility that Abanca and Kutxabank will do so, according to various sources. For its part, Banco Santander is the only one of the large Spanish financial entities that is considering entering another project together with international financial giants such as Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, MUFG Bank, TD Bank Group, and UBS. In this case, the digital money would be linked to currencies of the richest countries (G-7), such as the euro, but also the dollar or the yen.

warned a few days ago about private cryptocurrencies dominated until now by the dollar a few days ago about private cryptocurrencies dominated until now by the dollar.

The Bank of Spain also warns of their rise. "Private stablecoins, by their nature, cannot be the pillar of the monetary system," stated the governor of the institution, José María Escrivá. In his opinion, these instruments depend on confidence in the assets that support them, a confidence that can disappear precisely in times of tension. "What central banks provide – and that no private instrument can replace – is the definitive anchor of confidence on which financial systems are based," he added. In summary, with the digital euro, the debtor will be the ECB, which has the capacity to issue currency and cannot go bankrupt; and with stablecoins, a private entity may have liquidity problems, although the most reliable ones are subject to European regulation on crypto-assets (MiCA).

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies promoted by the private sector like bitcoin, but, unlike it, they are linked to an asset like the euro to avoid abrupt changes in value. It would be the equivalent of a voucher or an available balance. For its part, the digital euro is the electronic equivalent of banknotes and coins and, in general, so-called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are like a banknote on your mobile, which will be used more for shopping or paying for a coffee and will have a limit that could be 3,000 euros per day to avoid the flight of traditional deposits and financial instability. They are intended as a means of payment, not as a savings tool. In both cases, it is about facilitating fast digital payments – especially international transfers –, secure and stable 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

They also maintain parity with fiduciary currency: a digital euro is equivalent to one euro and the same applies to the stablecoin, unlike cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, although without the ECB being responsible for it and with the possibility of some fluctuation, as happened with Tether's in 2022, which lost parity with the dollar due to a loss of confidence in cryptocurrencies, or with USDC, which experienced the same during the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in the US. In neither case is there a physical form – they are kept in digital wallets, wallets– and technologies such as blockchain are used. The uses tend to be different: stablecoins for trading or remittances, and those backed by central banks, for everyday expenses.

The market for stablecoins, which in 2024 was around 160 billion dollars, today exceeds 300 billion. Its volume of daily and annual transactions has surpassed that of a network like Visa. Hence the concern of regulators. In general, the currently existing stablecoins are promoted by private companies, such as Tether (USDT), the main one, or Circle (USDC).

The Qivalis project currently consists of 12 European banks. In addition to CaixaBank and BBVA, it includes the French BNP Paribas – it was initially part of the group that includes Santander –, the Dutch ING, the Italians Banca Segella and Unicredit, the Belgian KBC, the Danish Danske Bank, the German DekaBank, the Swedish SEB, and the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International. This consortium, headquartered in the Netherlands, is led by CEO Jan-Oliver Sell, former CEO of Coinbase Germany, and includes Howard Davies, former chairman of NatWest Group and the FSA, as chairman of the supervisory board, which also includes Manuel Galarza, representing CaixaBank.

One of its objectives is to increase the weight of the euro in the world of digital currencies. The

stablecoin

will allow for almost instantaneous, low-cost payments and settlements, available at any day and time, including cross-border transactions or the settlement of digital assets such as securities and cryptocurrencies. It is aimed more at companies and institutions than at the general customer, who already has instant transfer methods like Bizum.