Qivalis, an Amsterdam-based joint venture developing a fully regulated MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin, has expanded its consortium to include 25 new banks.

 

 

With this expansion, the Qivalis consortium now comprises 37 banks across 15 European countries, including major names such as ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Nordea, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banco Sabadell, and Bankinter.

 

Created in early December last year, the Qivalis consortium is a group of European banks that came together to develop a stablecoin pegged to the euro. By launching a euro-pegged stablecoin, Qivalis aimed to create a credible and regulated alternative to the widely used United States dollar stablecoin.

 

The Qivalis euro-backed stablecoin would also eliminate the need for European banks to launch competing bank-issued stablecoins, as it is interoperable and fully compliant with MiCA across the European Union and the European Economic Area.

 

The consortium is currently pursuing an Electronic Money Institution license from De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank, with plans to launch a euro-backed stablecoin in the second half of this year.

 

The State of the Stablecoin Market

The stablecoin market continues to grow significantly, with more traditional finance institutions entering and tapping into the expanding sector. According to a recent report, total stablecoin liquidity, or market capitalization, has crossed $320 billion, with US dollar-backed stablecoins accounting for about 95% of the market.

 

Tether (USDT) remains the most widely used US dollar-backed stablecoin, accounting for about 57.96% of the market, or approximately $ 185 billion in market capitalization. USD Coin (USDC) follows, accounting for about 24% of the market and having a market capitalization of roughly $78-79 billion.

 

The euro-denominated stablecoin market still represents a small fraction of the global stablecoin market. According to CoinGecko, euro-denominated stablecoins have a combined market capitalization of roughly $670 million, with EURC from Circle and EURS from Stasis being the two most prominent, with market caps of $436 million and $145 million, respectively.

 

 

Minnesota has enacted a law that allows banks and credit unions in the state to offer cryptocurrency custody services, with the law expected to take effect on Aug. 1, 2026.

 

The bill, HF 3709, was signed into law on Friday by Minnesota state governor Tim Walz, with the state legislature’s website stating that cryptocurrency custody services may now be offered and performed in the state.

 

While this is a significant milestone for crypto adoption in the state, the law also requires banks and credit unions interested in offering crypto custody services to submit a written notice detailing their risk management frameworks to the Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce at least 60 days before commencing such services.

 

The Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce will serve as the primary regulator, overseeing crypto custody services offered by banks and credit unions in the state.

 

Banks and credit unions interested in offering crypto custody services are also required to maintain a comprehensive written policy covering their internal controls, security, risk management, and compliance frameworks, while also segregating their clients’ assets from institutionally owned assets.

 

According to Representative Bernie Perryman, one of the primary sponsors of HF 3709, the legislation aims to establish a trustworthy framework that enables financial institutions to work with and safeguard Minnesotans' crypto assets, especially as crypto becomes more mainstream.

 

“House File 3709 is about ensuring that Minnesota-based financial institutions are allowed to evolve alongside their customers and members rather than forcing Minnesotans to rely on unregulated, out-of-state or offshore providers for services that are already in use today,” Perryman said in a March press release.

 

The passage of HF 3709 comes just a few weeks after the Minnesota governor banned the use and ownership of crypto kiosks and ATMs across the state, citing their growing use in fraud.

 

With the passage of this bill, Minnesota now joins Wyoming, New York, and Virginia, which have passed similar bills that allow banks and credit unions to offer crypto custody services.

 

 

Senator Elizabeth Warren is not letting up. Not after the GENIUS Act. Not after the CLARITY Act. Not after nine crypto firms got federal trust charters. And certainly not after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency spent the better part of five months quietly waving through some of the biggest names in digital assets.

 

On Monday, the Massachusetts Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee fired off a sharply worded letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould, accusing his agency of violating the National Bank Act by granting trust charters to at least nine crypto companies, including Coinbase, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, Circle, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, Crypto.com, Stripe subsidiary Bridge, and Protego. The letter, dated May 18, demands a full accounting of the approvals, along with any communications between OCC officials and the White House or Trump family members, by June 1.

 

Regulatory Arbitrage, or Smart Business?

At the core of Warren's complaint is a fairly pointed argument: these companies are behaving like banks while holding charters that do not require them to operate like banks. National trust companies are, by design, more limited than full-service institutions. They cannot take FDIC-insured deposits. They do not engage in traditional commercial lending. They are supposed to focus on fiduciary work, managing assets on behalf of clients.

 

But Warren says the business plans she reviewed tell a different story. Several of the approved firms appear to be pursuing stablecoin issuance, custodial services, payments processing, and lending activities that resemble full-scale banking operations more than traditional trust work. She argues this creates systemic risk and amounts to regulatory arbitrage, writing: “These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank.”

 

That argument becomes harder to justify with how the modern banking system already operates. Under fractional reserve banking, traditional banks are permitted to lend out the vast majority of depositor funds while holding only a fraction in reserve, prioritizing leverage, liquidity, and profit generation over true one-to-one custody of customer assets. Critics argue that Warren is defending a legacy system built on counterparty risk while attacking crypto firms that, in many cases, are attempting to offer more transparent and fully reserved financial infrastructure.

 

The OCC has not responded to requests for comment. Gould, for his part, has been publicly bullish on the move toward crypto integration. When the agency announced its first wave of five conditional charter approvals back in December 2025, he framed it as a win for consumers and competition. "New entrants into the federal banking sector are good for consumers, the banking industry and the economy," he said at the time.

 

The Trump Angle Warren Will Not Ignore

There is a political dimension here that Warren has been pushing hard, and it involves the Trump family directly. World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family, is reportedly in the final stages of receiving a conditional OCC approval of its own. Warren and Gould clashed over the pending application at a Senate hearing in February, when Gould declined to commit to delaying or denying it. Warren, visibly frustrated, called him an accomplice to what she described as presidential corruption.

 

In her latest letter, Warren went further, requesting all emails, text messages, meeting summaries, and call transcripts between OCC staff and Trump, his immediate family, or anyone acting on their behalf, specifically as they relate to any of the nine approved charters. It is a broad ask, and one that almost certainly will not be met without a fight.

 

Industry Momentum Has Not Slowed Warren Down

The crypto industry has had a genuinely strong stretch in Washington. The GENIUS Act, which created a federal framework for stablecoin issuance, passed into law last year and was hailed across the industry as a landmark moment. The SEC under Chair Paul Atkins has signaled major regulatory relief, including a potential innovation exemption for tokenized securities. Crypto-friendly appointments have reshaped several key agencies.

 

And still, Warren keeps pushing back. Her office has framed the GENIUS Act as legislation that creates "light-touch regulation for crypto banks" while weakening the consumer protections that took decades to build. The trust charter campaign fits neatly into that critique. From Warren's perspective, every charter granted to a Coinbase or a Ripple is another step toward a two-tiered financial system, where traditional banks operate under strict rules while crypto firms get a cheaper, faster path into the same market.

 

What Happens Next

The June 1 deadline Warren has set is more political theater than hard deadline. The OCC is not legally obligated to respond on her timeline. But the letter sets up a paper trail, and if the agency stonewalls or the World Liberty Financial approval comes through before then, expect Warren to take that back to the committee floor.

 

The broader question, one that neither side has fully answered, is whether the OCC's chartering activity actually violates the National Bank Act or whether it represents a reasonable interpretation of existing authority. The agency has defended the charters as consistent with prior interpretive letters, some dating back to 2021. Lawyers on both sides will be watching the OCC's formal response closely, assuming one comes.

 

For crypto firms, the political noise is mostly background at this point. Charters have been granted. Business plans are moving forward. But Warren's sustained pressure does carry real risk, particularly if Democrats gain ground in 2026 midterms or if any of the chartered institutions runs into trouble. In this regulatory environment, one high-profile failure could reframe the entire debate very quickly.

 

The XRP Ledger (XRPL), a decentralized public blockchain designed for fast, low cost blockchain transactions, has integrated Boundless zero knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to provide banks and asset managers with confidential yet compliance friendly blockchain transactions.

 

The integration, announced Tuesday at XRPL Zone Paris during Paris Blockchain Week, will see XRPL leverage Boundless zero knowledge proofs to keep sensitive financial data private while maintaining the auditability and compliance of this data, exactly what banks and financial institutions have long requested on public blockchains.

 

 

According to Shiv Shankar, Chief Executive Officer of Boundless, the integration of Boundless zero knowledge infrastructure into the XRP Ledger will enhance institutional level privacy by shielding sensitive transaction details, including transaction size, frequency, and counterparties, from public view while still allowing regulators to audit transactions through selective disclosure and role based access controls.

 

Unlike most public blockchains, which allow anyone to see all activity on them, the Boundless XRPL integration cryptographically shields sensitive details about blockchain transactions. However, this does not mean that the XRP Ledger will be completely private or difficult for regulators to audit. Through role based access controls, XRP Ledger activity will still be visible and auditable to authorized parties.

 

This means that while the public will see almost nothing about a transaction, apart from confirmation that it occurred, a bank’s internal compliance team will be able to access more detailed information, and regulators will be able to request and receive comprehensive audit data when there is a valid basis to do so.

 

With this integration, banks, asset managers, and other large financial institutions will not have to make a trade off between transparency and confidentiality, as the Boundless integration upholds high standards of privacy while enabling regulatory oversight of blockchain transactions.

 

Blockchain Privacy Gains Momentum

Blockchain privacy continues to grow, evolving from a niche segment into broader institutional adoption among traditional financial institutions.

 

In March of this year, SWIFT, BNY Mellon, and some of the largest banks in the world, including HSBC, JPMorgan, and Citigroup, announced plans to build a blockchain based shared ledger on Linea, an Ethereum Layer 2 zk rollup developed by Consensys, the team behind MetaMask. Although this shared ledger is intended to facilitate fast cross border payments and the settlement of tokenized assets, it uses zero knowledge proofs to keep sensitive transaction details private.

 

In 2024, Deutsche Bank, alongside Privado ID, began testing the use of zero knowledge technology for decentralized, privacy preserving digital identity in banking systems and other financial infrastructure.

 

 

Swift and Chainlink just finished another interoperability trial focused on tokenized bond transactions, and it pulled in some serious European banking names: BNP Paribas Securities Services, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Société Générale FORGE all took part, testing how digital assets can move across both blockchain networks and traditional systems without anyone having to rebuild their existing infrastructure. The setup uses Swift's messaging standards alongside Chainlink's Cross-Chain-Interopability-Protocol (CCIP) so institutions can interact with blockchain networks through rails they already know and trust.