Key dealers
- Banco Santander SA is investigating going into the Stablecoin market and offers retail crawling services through its digital banking unit Openbank.
- Santander’s plans include considering euros and dollars -Denominated Stablecoins, with potential launches depending on receiving legislative approvals.
Banco Santander said, who has recently surpassed UBS to become Continental Europe’s largest bank by market value, is in the early stages of exploring a Stablecoin launch and expanding retail insects through its digital banking unit, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The Santander-supported Stablecoin initiative may take the form of either an ownership issued by the bank or a platform that facilitates access to existing Stablecoins. It is expected to be linked to either the euro or the US dollar.
In Latin American countries struggling with economic volatility are dollar -based stablecoins like USDT and USDC Get traction as a fuse against weakening of local currencies.
Nations such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, where Santander has a large customer base, are at the forefront of this trend, driven by inflation, devaluation and the need for effective transfers.
For retail services, Santander investigates the launch through Openbank, its digital bank daughter company. Openbank has applied for licenses under the EU markets within the Crypto Asset regulation (MICA) framework for providing crypto services to retail customers.
If approved, the platform can be launched as early as this year in markets such as Spain, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Santander has shown a strong interest in blockchain technology since the early stages of blockchain development, and that interest has only grown over time. The bank’s venture arm has previously invested in groundbreaking blockchain -startups, including Ripple and Digital Asset Holdings.
Santander was also the first British bank to use blockchain for international retail payments and launched a ripple -activated app 2019 that enabled the same day’s cross -border transfers for customers in several countries.
Last Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) performed his first eur intraday repo And a USD -Term Repo on the digital financing application through KINEXY’s digital assets, JPMorgan’s Digital Asset platform for tokenized financial products.
The move reflects increased momentum among banks to develop regulated Stablecoin products, in the midst of legislative progress in both the EU and the US, and a StableCoin market that recently exceeds $ 250 billion, For coytecko.
European banks have increased digital asset activity since the mica rules came into force. Santanders Rival, BBVA, received approval in March to offer retail crawling services in Spain and expanded its existing operations in Switzerland and Turkey.
Other institutions also continue. Société Générales Crypto unit SG Forge plans to start a US Dollar-supported StableCoin at Ethereumaims to become the first global bank to issue a Stablecoin on a public blockchain.
At the same time, Deutsche Bank’s DWS group, flow dealers and Galaxy Digital have also collaborated to issue a Euro-Denominated StableCoin.
