CoinDesk
Chainlink has joined Project Pangea, a coalition of European and South Korean banks representing more than $10 trillion in assets under management, to settle foreign-exchange trades in stablecoins in near real time. The group includes Qivalis, a euro stablecoin consortium backed by 37 European banks, and UniKA, a Korean alliance of more than 10 commercial banks, and is targeting live transactions within 12 months.
The initiative focuses on the Europe–South Korea trade corridor, which processes over $150 billion in goods and services annually. Settlement will move from the traditional 48-hour (T+2) cycle to near-instant (T+0) using regulated euro- and won-pegged stablecoins exchanged through atomic payment-versus-payment (PvP) mechanisms, where both legs of a trade settle simultaneously or not at all.
Why it matters
Project Pangea is engineered as middleware that lets banks keep using Swift and ISO 20022 messaging while Chainlink's infrastructure translates those commands into atomic swaps on the Pangea L1 Network. The design choice signals that the bank consortium is not betting on a parallel payments network replacing incumbent rails; it is layering blockchain settlement onto the messaging backbone banks have used since the 1970s. Chainlink's Niki Ariyasinghe called the appetite for real infrastructure "very much there," contrasting the project with prior proof-of-concept work that never reached production.
Industry data cited by the group shows 60% of all global stablecoin payments already occur in Asia, a tailwind the consortium is leaning into. By settling euro and won flows atomically, the banks aim to compress days of trapped liquidity into seconds and free balance-sheet capacity currently locked in transit.
Market impact
For the stablecoin sector, the move formalises a regulated, bank-issued euro and won on chain rather than relying on dollar-dominated stablecoins for FX plumbing. For Chainlink, the role is infrastructure rather than issuer: the bank groups issue the stablecoins, while Chainlink provides the oracle, cross-chain messaging, and settlement layer.
Frequently asked questions
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What is Project Pangea and which banks are involved?
Project Pangea is a coalition formed to settle foreign-exchange trades in stablecoins in near real time. It includes Chainlink, Qivalis (a euro stablecoin consortium backed by 37 European banks), and UniKA (a Korean banking alliance of more than 10 commercial banks), collectively representing over $10 trillion in…
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How will the settlement actually work on Chainlink?
Pangea is built as middleware. Banks will continue using Swift and ISO 20022 messaging, and Chainlink's infrastructure will translate those commands into atomic payment-versus-payment swaps on the Pangea L1 Network, settling euro- and won-pegged stablecoins simultaneously or not at all.
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Which trade corridor is the project targeting first?
The consortium is focusing on the Europe–South Korea corridor, which processes over $150 billion in goods and services annually and ranks among the world's 15 largest trade routes. Settlement is expected to move from the standard 48-hour T+2 cycle to near-instant T+0.
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When will Project Pangea handle live transactions?
Chainlink VP Niki Ariyasinghe said the target is live FX transactions within a legal and regulatory framework inside the next 12 months, distinguishing the project from prior proof-of-concept work that never reached production.
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Is Project Pangea a rival to Ripple's cross-border business?
Chainlink frames itself as a technology provider layered on top of incumbent bank rails rather than a competitor building a unified network. Ariyasinghe said the approach is collaborative, not a head-to-head challenge to Ripple's decade-long institutional push.
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