Chainlink, FairSquareLab, UniKA and Qivalis have formed Project Pangea, a working group of more than 50 European and South Korean banks representing over $10 trillion in AUM, to test T+0 foreign exchange settlement using regulated euro and Korean won stablecoins. The consortium, announced June 23, will use Chainlink’s cross-chain and data infrastructure and a new settlement-dedicated blockchain from FairSquareLab to convert standard Swift payment messages into atomic on-chain FX swaps.
The working group is the largest institutional bet yet on onchain settlement for the FX market, and it is built to sit on top of the existing banking plumbing rather than replace it. Banks will keep sending payment instructions through Swift’s ISO 20022 messaging standard, and Chainlink’s connectivity layer will translate those instructions into onchain settlement actions.
What the 50-bank working group agreed to build
Project Pangea pairs Chainlink’s oracle and interoperability stack with two pre-existing banking coalitions, the Korea-based UniKA and the Europe-based Qivalis, to test whether regulated stablecoins can settle foreign exchange trades in real time. The $10 trillion in combined assets under management cited in the full Project Pangea press release reflects the bank assets behind UniKA and Qivalis, not direct deposits into any new token. The working group’s goal is to move FX settlement from the current T+2 cycle, which takes 48 hours to clear, to T+0, where both sides of a trade settle at the same moment.
- More than 50 banks in the working group
- $10+ trillion in combined assets under management
- 37 European banks backing the Qivalis euro stablecoin
- 10+ Korean commercial banks in the UniKA alliance
- 5 entities on the UniKA steering committee
The Korean coalition, called UniKA, is governed by a steering committee of five entities, Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, Kbank, FairSquareLab and OBDIA, plus more than 10 participating Korean commercial banks. UniKA sits inside a broader trend of how banks are adopting crypto infrastructure as plumbing, with Korean commercial banks moving quickly on stablecoin-based settlement trials.
The European side comes from Qivalis’s regulated euro stablecoin project, a consortium of 37 leading European banks. Qivalis is preparing to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026 under Dutch Central Bank supervision, and Project Pangea is the first live corridor it has committed to.
Why the Korean won sits at the center of the bet
The Korean won is the test case, and the working group’s framing makes that explicit. The Europe-Korea trade corridor handles more than $150 billion in goods and services each year, per Cryptopolitan, and ranks among the world’s 15 largest trade routes. Cross-border transactions in that corridor are slowed by the need to convert capital into intermediary currencies, usually the US dollar. A regulated KRW stablecoin settles against its euro counterpart without routing through that bridge.
The corridor is small relative to the global FX market, which processes more than $9.6 trillion in daily trading volume according to the BIS Triennial Survey on FX volumes, but it is a deliberate test bed. A successful T+0 corridor between the euro and the won would give Korean banks a direct on-ramp to a multi-currency settlement network that does not depend on dollar liquidity. It would give European banks a regulated Asian counter they can reach without a US correspondent.
The institutional framing from Chainlink’s side is that this is the largest step yet toward moving global value onchain. The working group’s structure, anchored by Chainlink’s standards, is built to make that step permanent.
I’m very excited to launch Project Pangea along with a consortia of major global banks, as this is a major milestone toward rebuilding how global value moves. Project Pangea upgrades the fragmented foreign exchange model of today with direct, atomic currency swaps using stablecoins. This is a clear example of how the Chainlink standard powers global-scale settlement for the next generation of capital markets and a clear signal that global finance is increasingly moving onchain.
Fernando Vazquez, President of Capital Markets at Chainlink Labs, said the working group is meant to be a structural upgrade to the fragmented FX model of today, not a proof of concept. The bet, detailed in Chainlink’s banking and capital markets announcement, is that a regulated, multi-currency stablecoin network, anchored by EUR and KRW and wired through Swift’s existing message standard, can carry the kind of volume that the global FX market processes every business day.
How the three-layer stack is wired
The architecture splits cleanly into three layers, with each layer owned by a different party. The banking layer stays on Swift and ISO 20022, the messaging standard banks have used for decades. The connectivity layer is Chainlink’s, and it does the work of translating Swift messages into onchain settlement actions.
| Layer | Function | Technology |
|---|---|---|
| Banking | Payment messaging and FX instructions | Swift / ISO 20022 |
| Connectivity | Cross-chain transfer, FX data, orchestration | Chainlink CCIP, Data Streams, CRE |
| Settlement | Atomic PvP swaps | Pangea AMM on Ethereum, Polygon, Pangea L1 |
The connectivity layer runs on three Chainlink standards working together. The Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) acts as the orchestration layer between Swift and the blockchains. Chainlink Data Streams feed high-speed FX market data into the Proactive Market Maker engine, and Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Standard (CCIP) moves EUR stablecoins from their native networks onto the KRW settlement chain. The settlement layer, where the actual FX swap executes, is the Pangea AMM, a multi-currency stablecoin liquidity engine operated by FairSquareLab on Ethereum, Polygon, and the new Pangea L1 blockchain. At the protocol level, oracle data updates are guaranteed to execute first in each block, so the chain ensures that every FX swap settles against the current market price.
The atomic Payment-versus-Payment mechanic
The core settlement primitive is atomic Payment-versus-Payment (PvP), a design in which both sides of a currency trade clear at the same moment, or neither side does. If one leg of the trade fails, the entire transaction is cancelled, removing the risk that one party pays while the other does not.
For the FX market, that is a structural change. Traditional FX settlement relies on netting, pre-funded nostro accounts, and post-trade reconciliation, and the risk that one party fails to deliver after the other has already paid is the settlement risk that CLS Bank was built to eliminate for the world’s largest currencies. Atomic PvP pushes that guarantee down to the individual trade, not the netting cycle.
For the European-Korean corridor, atomic PvP means a euro stablecoin and a KRW stablecoin can swap directly on the Pangea L1 without a correspondent bank in the middle, and without a two-day wait for the trade to clear. The oracle data updates first in each block, so the swap price is locked to the global FX market at the moment of execution.
The 12-month clock and what could break it
Chainlink’s Niki Ariyasinghe told Cryptopolitan the group is targeting live transactions within 12 months. That timeline assumes the regulated euro stablecoin from Qivalis launches on schedule and that Korean regulators sign off on the KRW stablecoin’s use for interbank settlement. It also assumes the Pangea L1 can handle intraday liquidity at scale without the kind of slippage that the FX market is designed to minimize.
Project Pangea could position Qivalis’ upcoming euro stablecoin at the heart of institutional FX innovation, establishing a new paradigm for cross-border settlement between Europe and South Korea. Connecting regulated EUR and KRW stablecoins through atomic settlement would move the conversation past theoretical use cases, proving how next-generation infrastructure would optimize international trade corridors. For global participants, migrating to a friction-free cross-border model could unlock significant capital efficiency by eliminating traditional settlement risk and reducing intraday liquidity costs, safely opening the door to high-volume institutional flows.
Jean-Luc Gustave, Head of Partnerships for APAC at Qivalis, said the working group is built to prove the infrastructure works at institutional scale, not just in a test environment. The 12-month window is what separates a milestone from a market.
What the LINK token did with the news
The institutional win did not extend to the token. The LINK token traded near $7.57 on the day the working group was announced, down about 5% over 24 hours after falling from an intraday high near $7.99, per CoinPaper. The token remains roughly 82% below its all-time high, per Cryptopolitan. The price reaction captured the market’s open question about whether the orchestration layer pays back to the oracle token or to the L1 and stablecoins underneath it.
The working group is structured so that Chainlink supplies the data, interoperability, and orchestration standards, FairSquareLab supplies the settlement L1, and Qivalis and UniKA supply the regulated stablecoins. LINK captures the orchestration layer, but the residual value, the fees from the stablecoins and the L1, sits with the other parties.
That structure is the bet, and the market is pricing it. A working group of more than 50 banks with $10 trillion in AUM is the headline. Whether the headline translates into LINK demand is the trade. For context on Chainlink’s broader institutional footprint, see coverage of Chainlink’s $27.6 trillion in processed transaction value across its banking and capital markets work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Project Pangea?
Project Pangea is a working group formed by Chainlink, FairSquareLab, UniKA and Qivalis to test T+0 foreign exchange settlement using regulated euro and Korean won stablecoins. The group includes more than 50 European and South Korean banks representing over $10 trillion in combined assets under management, and it was announced on June 23, 2026.
Which banks are part of the working group?
UniKA, the Korean coalition, runs on a steering committee of five organizations: Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, Kbank, FairSquareLab and OBDIA, with more than 10 Korean commercial banks participating alongside them. The European side is Qivalis, a group of 37 leading European banks building a regulated euro stablecoin. Chainlink, FairSquareLab, UniKA and Qivalis together account for more than 50 institutions in the working group.
How does atomic Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) work?
Atomic Payment-versus-Payment is a settlement model in which both legs of a currency trade execute simultaneously, or the whole trade unwinds. That removes the risk that one side has already paid before discovering the other will not. Project Pangea applies this design to euro and Korean won stablecoin swaps, with the Pangea L1 executing the swap and Chainlink’s oracle layer updating price data first in each block.
What is the Pangea L1 Network?
FairSquareLab operates the Pangea L1 as a settlement-only blockchain, with the FX contract deployed on a chain that sits outside any single country’s control. The protocol orders oracle data updates first in every block, so all FX swaps settle at the current market price rather than at a stale quote.
When will Project Pangea go live?
Chainlink’s Niki Ariyasinghe told Cryptopolitan the working group aims to begin live transactions within 12 months. That window depends on Qivalis launching its regulated euro stablecoin on schedule. It also depends on Korean regulators clearing the KRW stablecoin for interbank settlement.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Figures and statements are accurate as of publication on June 24, 2026, and may change. Readers should consult a qualified professional before making any decisions related to cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, or foreign exchange.
