BBVA and Santander Put Corporate Stablecoins Ahead of Tokenized Deposits

BBVA's digital assets chief, Francisco Maroto, recently highlighted that stablecoins operating under the MiCA framework are poised to enable round-the-clock cross-border business settlement. Both BBVA and Santander are actively prioritizing the development and application of compliant stablecoins for their corporate clientele, signaling a strategic shift towards leveraging regulated digital currencies for enhanced financial efficiency. This focus comes as tokenized bank deposits are viewed as a medium- to long-term prospect, primarily due to ongoing regulatory uncertainties and complexities surrounding cross-bank risk transmission. The initiative is further bolstered by BBVA's participation in Qivalis, a significant European consortium comprising 37 European banks, which is currently preparing to issue a compliant euro stablecoin. This collaborative effort by major financial institutions underscores a growing institutional commitment to adopting regulated digital assets for real-world financial operations, particularly within the European market. It demonstrates how established banks are actively working within new regulatory paradigms like MiCA to unlock the potential of tokenized assets for corporate use cases, setting a precedent for future RWA integration.