Hey, it’s Marc.

Today, ten of the world’s biggest banks—Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and five others—fired back. They’re launching a G7-backed stablecoin network. The monopoly is under siege.

For five decades, banks owned the pipes. Every wire, every SWIFT message, every settlement ran through their infrastructure.

Then stablecoins showed up. Now you don’t need a bank to send $10M to Singapore. You need a wallet and USDC. Banks watched $300 billion flow into an industry they dismissed as “too risky.” They watched Tether print $14 billion in profit in 2024. They watched fintechs bypass their rails entirely. Stablecoins processed $27.6 trillion in transactions in 2024, officially exceeding Visa’s annual payment volume. That’s transaction flow banks used to own.

Let’s unpack.

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What Happened

Ten major banks including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, BNP Paribas, MUFG, TD Bank Group, and Santander announced they’re jointly exploring blockchain-based stablecoins pegged 1:1 to G7 currencies, USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD, and CHF.

The announcement came Friday, October 10, 2025. The project is in early stages and will explore whether there’s value in issuing assets on public blockchains that are pegged to real-world currencies.

This isn’t a pilot. The banks said their objective is to explore whether a new industry-wide offering could bring the benefits of digital assets and enhance competition across the market, while ensuring full compliance with regulatory requirements and best practice risk management.

Translation: banks are building regulated alternatives to Circle and Tether.

Why It Matters

The GENIUS Act opened the floodgates. Signed into law by President Trump on July 18, 2025, the GENIUS Act allows any regulated company to issue its own stablecoin under federal or state regulatory frameworks. That’s the green light banks needed. Now they’re moving.
Fintechs are bypassing the banks: Stripe, PayPal , Circle, they’re all building payment rails on stablecoins. That’s trilions transaction volume that no longer flows through bank infrastructure. And fee revenue that no longer lands in bank P&Ls. Standard Chartered warns $1T could flee emerging market banks by 2028.
Legacy systems are under immense threat. SWIFT takes days.Stablecoins settle in seconds. Stablecoins operate 24/7. Banks don’t. When liquidity moves at the speed of the internet, the old system looks broken.That’s a structural disadvantage banks can only solve by building their own rails.

Will this succeed?

Here’s the thing: Stablecoin adoption is all about distribution.

That’s where banks have a real edge: trillions in deposits, hundreds of millions of customers, and direct access to global commerce.

If this G7 consortium executes, it is a huge, credible threat to Tether and Circle who already made tens of billions in profit off the float and spread of digital dollars.

Tether controls 58-69% of the stablecoin market with $170+ billion in supply, generating $14 billion in 2024 profits. Circle holds approximately $61 billion USDC in circulation with $251 million in Q2 2025 profit. Together, they command 85% of the market.

On top of that, Tether dominates crypto trading. But Tether doesn’t have relationships with Unilever’s CFO.

Banks do.

Our Take

This is the most bullish stablecoin news of 2025. When ten global systemically important banks announce a joint stablecoin initiative, that’s a big validation.

We’re watching the next financial arms race: Stablecoins built by startups, scaled by fintechs, and now defended by banks.

Banks are finally waking up. And the fight isn’t about crypto anymore. It’s about who owns the rails of global money.

Today’s Market Signals

Morgan Stanley drops restrictions on which wealth clients can own crypto funds. Link
Trump Tariff Threat on China Sends Bitcoin Tumbling Below $119K. Link
Kalshi, a Polymarket competitor, raises $300M+ at $5B valuation from Sequoia, a16z, Paradigm and others. Link

That’s all for today’s CEO Briefing.

Best,

Marc & Team

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