U.S. Banking Associations Join Forces to Build Blockchain Infrastructure for Financial Institutions

U.S. state banking associations representing thousands of banks and serving millions of individuals and businesses announced the creation of BankChain Alliance, an industry group that will develop a blockchain network for payments, tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and automated settlements.

Banking associations from 39 states are participating in the project, including Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The participants plan to create a unified blockchain network that will be owned by the banking industry, developed with its involvement, and governed by financial institutions themselves.

The infrastructure will allow banks of different sizes to introduce new financial tools while complying with existing regulatory requirements and security standards. According to BankChain Alliance interim chair and Florida Bankers Association CEO Kathy Kraninger, the project is focused on building infrastructure that banks can control themselves. She said a unified network would allow both large and smaller regional financial institutions to adopt new payment technologies while continuing to serve customers in rural, urban, and regional communities.

BankChain Alliance is currently selecting a technology partner. The network is scheduled to launch in 2027. The initiative is intended to create a common technology foundation that banks can use to develop blockchain products without having to hand over critical infrastructure to external platforms. The project also provides for interoperability with other financial networks and infrastructure platforms. In addition, BankChain Alliance plans to give banks across the country an opportunity to become co-owners of the blockchain infrastructure being developed.

Financial institutions in various countries have also been actively joining forces to test and deploy blockchain technologies. Three of Japan’s largest banks formed an alliance to issue a joint stablecoin. Eight of South Korea’s largest banks created a consortium to develop a shared platform for issuing won-pegged stablecoins. The central banks of Canada, Australia, and Israel agreed to establish an international banking innovation alliance based on Ripple’s payment network. Major banks in Sweden, France, and Liechtenstein are jointly developing tokenization infrastructure. In the EU, the Qivalis consortium was formed to issue a euro-denominated stablecoin compliant with MiCA requirements, and 37 of Europe’s largest banks later joined the initiative. U.S. financial giants, meanwhile, announced a joint initiative to develop infrastructure for settlement and clearing using tokenized bank deposits.