It’s been a week of remarkable speeches. First up: FDIC chairman Travis Hill, who told Congress on Tuesday that the agency will publish its first-ever stablecoin rules under the GENIUS Act before year‑end. By Washington standards, that‘s warp speed.

And he didn’t stop there. The FDIC will also spell out which tokenization activities banks may touch and issue guidance on the regulatory status of tokenized deposits. In other words: regulatory clarity is about to be handed out like Christmas cookies.

On the very same day, across the Atlantic, Commissioner Maria Albuquerque argued that tokenization and DeFi are set to become the operating system of Europe’s financial markets and urged the EU to lead rather than follow. Her speech is well worth a read.

Today, we also talk about:

• BNP Paribas joins euro stablecoin consortium Qivalis

• Securitize enters Europe – interview with CEO Carlos Domingo

BNP Paribas Joins European Stablecoin Consortium Qivalis

BNP’s endorsement: On Tuesday, the euro stablecoin consortium held its first press conference, unveiling its name, Qivalis, and introducing its management team. The group, originally formed by nine banks including ING, UniCredit and DekaBank, also announced a major addition: BNP Paribas, Europe’s largest bank, will become its tenth member.

• Why it matters: BNP’s entry comes as a surprise. According to information shared with Blockstories, earlier talks did not lead to participation, partly because the consortium insisted on equal footing for all members. Its decision to join now strengthens the consortium’s ambition to establish a “common European stablecoin standard,” said Floris Lugt, Qivalis’ newly appointed CFO.

A senior board: Lugt joins from ING, where he led the wholesale banking digital assets team. He will work alongside CEO Jan-Oliver Sell, formerly at Binance and Coinbase Germany. Sir Howard Davies, former Chair of NatWest and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, will serve as chair of the supervisory board.

What comes next: While the consortium continues its e-money license process with the Dutch central bank, its immediate priorities include further development of the mint-and-burn platform, which has been in production since the summer, the execution of proof-of-concepts and live pilots with partners.

• “We want to begin testing both the use of our stablecoin in crypto and DeFi markets, and its potential for payment use cases, bringing corporates and banks on board to enable programmable flows and onchain settlement,” Lugt told Blockstories.

Distribution challenge: These pilots will also help member banks develop their own distribution capabilities, which Lugt identifies as one of the project’s early constraints.

• “It’s the responsibility of the banks and other partners to develop their own distribution strategies, but in the early years there will be close collaboration with the consortium to ensure sufficient liquidity, especially since not all banks are at the same stage of development,” he said.

More institutions incoming: In addition to BNP Paribas, Qivalis is in discussions with other major European banks to join as shareholders. Talks are also underway with institutions outside Europe to support cross-border use cases and explore longer-term multi-currency interoperability.

Growing internal momentum: To support its roadmap, the consortium expects to grow to around 50 employees and several dozen shareholders over the next few years. According to Lugt, internal alignment across banks has improved significantly.

• “Now that the structure is taking shape, it has become much easier to engage in concrete discussions. But also because the internal adoption and understanding of stablecoins within European banks has advanced considerably,” he said.

Securitize Enters Europe Under the DLT Pilot Regime

First non-EU player: Last week, tokenization firm Securitize obtained authorization to operate a DLT-based market infrastructure under the EU’s Pilot Regime, a regulated exemption framework that allows for the trading and settlement of tokenized securities under direct supervision. With this approval, Securitize is now the only firm running regulated digital-securities infrastructure in both the United States and Europe.

• Why it matters: Securitize has emerged as one of the most active players in institutional tokenization. The company has already tokenized more than $3.5 billion in assets and works with firms such as Apollo, VanEck, and BNY Mellon. Backed by BlackRock, Securitize also serves as the transfer agent and technology provider for BUIDL, the asset manager’s on-chain money market fund.

One-stop-shop for tokenization: Authorized by the CNMV, Spain’s financial markets regulator, Securitize’s trading venue will run on the Avalanche blockchain. This marks the next step in the company’s strategy to integrate all core functions of the tokenization lifecycle into a single, unified platform.

• “A tokenized market only works when issuance, trading, settlement, and transfer-agency operate on a single digital framework. Splitting those functions across multiple intermediaries recreates the same friction tokenization is meant to remove,” explained Carlos Domingo, CEO and founder of Securitize, to Blockstories.

Interview: We spoke with him about Securitize’s plans to enter and scale in Europe, how they intend to connect the two markets, and the rationale behind the first products they plan to launch.

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On connecting U.S. and European markets:

On which products to expect in the next 12 months:

1. Stablecoins & Short-Term Funding Markets (Banque de France & ECB) — A research paper showing that rising stablecoin demand created a new bridge between crypto and money markets, while leaving rates largely unchanged.

2. Stablecoins & Payments (Riksbank) — A memo from Sweden’s central bank arguing that the true value of stablecoins lies less in their peg and more in their ability to circulate on open, global DLT networks, enabling cheaper, faster, and programmable cross-border payments.

3. Crypto & Debanking (U.S. House GOP) — A congressional report describing how federal regulators allegedly pressured banks to limit services to crypto firms, creating a de facto “debanking” campaign.

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