A consortium of 47 European and South Korean banks launched Project Pangea on June 23, 2026, in partnership with Chainlink, to build a stablecoin-based foreign exchange settlement system targeting same-day (T+0) transactions. The initiative brings together Qivalis, a euro stablecoin consortium ba...
"This is not just a POC. Everyone's coming in with their eyes wide open." — Niki Ariyasinghe, VP Asia-Pacific and Middle East, Chainlink Labs
A consortium of 47 European and South Korean banks launched Project Pangea on June 23, 2026, in partnership with Chainlink, to build a stablecoin-based foreign exchange settlement system targeting same-day (T+0) transactions. The initiative brings together Qivalis, a euro stablecoin consortium backed by 37 European banks including BNP Paribas, ING, and CaixaBank, and UniKA, a Korean banking alliance anchored by Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, and Kbank. The participating institutions collectively manage over $10 trillion in assets.
The project targets the $150 billion annual Europe–South Korea trade corridor, testing atomic payment-versus-payment (PvP) settlement of regulated euro and Korean won stablecoins. Current settlement in this corridor runs on a T+2 cycle — 48 hours of counterparty exposure. The partners are targeting compliant live transactions within 12 months.
Project Pangea is architecturally distinct from prior blockchain settlement proofs-of-concept. It preserves existing Swift and ISO 20022 messaging infrastructure while routing settlement through a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain called Pangea L1, operated by South Korean firm FairSquareLab. Banks do not need to overhaul their operational stack. They trigger transactions via Swift; Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and Data Streams handle the translation to on-chain settlement.
Global FX markets process $9.6 trillion per day, according to the Bank for International Settlements' April 2025 Triennial Survey — a record. Settlement risk remains a structural problem. According to BIS data from 2022, approximately $2.2 trillion in deliverable FX turnover was exposed to settlement risk on any given day. The April 2025 survey found that only 36% of average daily settlement volume ($5 trillion) was settled via payment-versus-payment mechanisms that eliminate settlement risk entirely. Another 54% ($7.6 trillion) used methods such as pre-settlement netting that mitigate but do not eliminate risk.
The cost structure of cross-border payments compounds the problem. FX markup constitutes 60–97% of total cross-border payment cost depending on use case, according to the Payments Association. Processing fees for individual Swift payments typically run €15–€50, with percentage-based fees on top. Recipient banks frequently charge similar amounts, creating layered cost structures for end users.
Traditional settlement relies on correspondent banking networks and nostro/vostro accounts maintained in multiple currencies across jurisdictions. These accounts tie up capital and expose institutions to intraday FX volatility and liquidity risk. While Swift GPI has improved transparency — the network claims nearly 60% of GPI payments reach beneficiaries within 30 minutes — it cannot guarantee same-day settlement in all corridors.
Project Pangea operates through two regional alliances connected by shared technology infrastructure.
European Side — Qivalis: Qivalis is a euro stablecoin consortium incorporated in Amsterdam in December 2025, comprising 37 banks from 15 countries. Members include BNP Paribas, ING, CaixaBank, Danske Bank, DekaBank, DZ Bank, KBC, Raiffeisen Bank International, SEB, UniCredit, ABN AMRO, BBVA, Banca Sella, and Piraeus Bank. The consortium is awaiting authorization as an electronic money institution from the Dutch central bank (De Nederlandsche Bank). Sir Howard Davies, former chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority and RBS, chairs the supervisory board. Qivalis plans to issue its MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026, backed 1:1 by euros and high-quality liquid assets held with regulated custodians.
Korean Side — UniKA (Unified Korea Alliance): UniKA is governed by a steering committee of five entities: Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, Kbank, FairSquareLab, and OBDIA. The alliance includes 10+ additional Korean commercial banks. FairSquareLab, a Korean digital asset infrastructure company, provides the on-chain FX settlement engine.
Technology Provider — Chainlink: Chainlink provides two core services: CCIP for cross-chain asset movement and Data Streams for real-time FX price feeds. Chainlink does not operate the settlement chain itself. According to Ariyasinghe, "I wouldn't necessarily describe it as a rival [to Swift]. We're very much a technology provider."
The system operates on a three-layer architecture:
Layer 1 — Banking Systems: Banks continue using Swift messaging and ISO 20022 data standards. No changes to existing banking infrastructure are required. Transaction instructions originate from standard banking workflows.
Layer 2 — Connectivity: Chainlink CCIP moves euro stablecoins to the Korean won settlement chain, translating Swift commands into blockchain-native instructions. Chainlink Data Streams supplies real-time FX market data for pricing. The Pangea L1 guarantees that oracle data updates execute ahead of every other transaction in a block, ensuring swaps settle against current market prices rather than stale rates.
Layer 3 — Settlement: FairSquareLab's Pangea L1 network hosts the settlement contracts. The chain is described as "neutral ground independent of any single country or participating bank." Settlement uses atomic PvP — both sides of a currency exchange settle simultaneously or not at all. FairSquareLab's settlement engine anchors price discovery to oracle quotes rather than automated market maker bonding curves, a design choice that prioritizes institutional-grade pricing over DeFi-native mechanics.
Settlement contracts also deploy on Ethereum and Polygon, providing multi-chain optionality.
The Europe–South Korea trade corridor is substantial. In 2025, bilateral trade in goods reached approximately €124 billion, according to the European External Action Service. The EU imports Korean semiconductors, vehicles, batteries, and electronic components, while exporting machinery, chemicals, and professional services. Bilateral services trade added approximately €33 billion in 2024.
On June 10, 2026, the EU and South Korea signed a Digital Trade Agreement, establishing regulatory infrastructure for cross-border digital commerce between the two economies.
According to Chainlink, 60% of global stablecoin payments currently occur in Asia. Joonhong Kim, CEO of FairSquareLab, stated that the project "opens a path for the Korean won to connect directly with global currency markets, reducing intermediary reliance." Jean-Luc Gustave of Qivalis noted it "could position the euro stablecoin at the heart of institutional FX innovation."
The EUR–KRW pair is not among the 18 currencies currently settled through CLS, the primary global utility for FX settlement risk mitigation. CLS settled an average of $2.54 trillion daily in April 2025, a 36.6% increase from the prior triennial survey period. The absence of KRW from CLS creates a structural gap that Project Pangea explicitly targets.
Project Pangea extends a pattern of accelerating institutional adoption for Chainlink's infrastructure. CCIP processed over $18 billion in transfer volume in Q1 2026. The protocol's institutional integrations include:
Project Pangea marks a shift from tokenized asset settlement to FX settlement — a significantly larger market. Daily FX volume ($9.6 trillion) dwarfs the tokenized asset market, which recently crossed $15 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasuries alone.
The Qivalis consortium represents the most significant coordinated effort by European banks to issue a regulated stablecoin. The timing is deliberate: MiCA's full enforcement creates a regulatory framework that permits bank-issued stablecoins under electronic money institution licenses.
Qivalis plans to leverage Fireblocks for its custody and issuance infrastructure. The stablecoin will be collateralized 1:1 by euros and high-quality liquid assets. The consortium's expansion from 12 founding banks to 37 members across 15 countries between incorporation (December 2025) and May 2026 indicates broad institutional demand for a bank-issued euro stablecoin alternative to existing options.
The Project Pangea partnership gives Qivalis a concrete use case for its stablecoin before it has even launched — institutional FX settlement rather than retail payments. This positions the Qivalis euro stablecoin as infrastructure rather than a consumer product.
Regulatory approval remains pending. Qivalis does not yet have its electronic money institution license from the Dutch central bank. The Korean won stablecoin framework requires approval from Korean financial regulators. Neither stablecoin exists in production. The 12-month live transaction target depends on both regulatory processes completing on schedule.
The Pangea L1 is unproven. FairSquareLab's settlement chain has no production track record. Settlement systems require extreme reliability — measured in 99.99%+ uptime — and the consequences of failure in institutional FX are severe. The chain's oracle-priority transaction ordering is a novel design without precedent at institutional scale.
Counterparty and liquidity risk shift rather than disappear. Atomic PvP eliminates settlement risk by definition, but introduces reliance on stablecoin reserves, oracle accuracy, and smart contract correctness. A stablecoin depeg event during settlement would create a different category of systemic risk.
Scope is narrow. EUR–KRW is a meaningful but mid-tier FX corridor. The major pairs (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD) are already served by CLS and deep correspondent banking networks. Project Pangea's value proposition is strongest in corridors that CLS does not cover.
Competitive landscape. Ripple launched its RLUSD stablecoin in Japan on June 25, 2026, through a partnership with SBI Holdings. Circle and Nomura are jointly targeting Japan's $440 billion daily FX market. The stablecoin-based FX settlement space is crowding rapidly.
Project Pangea represents the largest coordinated attempt by traditional banks to use stablecoins for institutional FX settlement. The consortium's scale — 47 banks, $10+ trillion in assets — exceeds prior blockchain settlement pilots in both participant count and asset coverage. The architectural decision to preserve Swift compatibility while adding blockchain settlement reduces adoption friction for banks.
The economic logic is straightforward. The BIS data shows $2.2 trillion in daily FX volume exposed to settlement risk. Traditional T+2 settlement ties up capital and creates counterparty exposure. Atomic PvP settlement using stablecoins eliminates both, at least in theory.
Execution remains the constraint. Two stablecoins that do not yet exist must receive regulatory approval in two jurisdictions. A purpose-built blockchain must achieve institutional-grade reliability. And 47 banks, each with their own compliance and technology teams, must coordinate implementation within 12 months. The project's success will be measured not by the press release but by the first live EUR–KRW atomic swap that settles in seconds instead of days.