Chainlink and banking consortia from Europe and South Korea plan to develop new infrastructure for cross-border foreign exchange settlements using euro- and Korean won-backed stablecoins. The project aims to introduce a real-time settlement model.
Chainlink, one of the largest blockchain oracle providers, announced the launch of Project Pangea in partnership with European and South Korean banking groups. The initiative focuses on building infrastructure for instant international foreign exchange settlements powered by stablecoins.
The project brings together South Korea’s UniKA consortium, which includes Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, Kbank, FairSquareLab, and OBDIA, along with more than 10 commercial banks in the country. It also includes the European consortium Qivalis, which unites 37 banks and is developing a euro-denominated stablecoin project. Organizations participating in Project Pangea collectively manage more than $10 trillion in assets.
According to the initiative’s participants, the global foreign exchange market processes more than $9.6 trillion in transactions every day. However, the existing infrastructure still relies on intermediary currencies for international settlements and continues to face delays in cross-border transfers.
Project Pangea seeks to replace the traditional T+2 settlement model, under which transactions can take up to two business days to complete, with real-time settlement. Under the project, banks will be able to conduct direct foreign exchange transactions on a Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) basis using regulated stablecoins backed by the euro and the Korean won.
In addition to enabling instant settlement, the project’s key objectives include:
- launching direct foreign exchange transactions using stablecoins$
- expanding liquidity across multiple currencies$
- simplifying access to international foreign exchange markets$
- reducing operational costs and settlement risks associated with international transfers.
Project Pangea’s architecture will consist of three layers:
- The banking layer will include SWIFT infrastructure and the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard.
- The interoperability layer will provide data transfer, messaging, and connectivity solutions between banking systems and blockchain networks.
- The settlement layer will consist of smart contracts and blockchain infrastructure built on Ethereum, Polygon, and Pangea, where foreign exchange settlements will be executed.
The project’s technological foundation will be provided by Chainlink and FairSquareLab. The following solutions will be used:
- Chainlink CCIP, a cross-chain interoperability protocol for transferring digital assets across blockchain networks.
- Chainlink Data Streams, a real-time market data system providing foreign exchange rate information.
- Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE), infrastructure designed to integrate banking systems with smart contracts.
- Onchain FX Settlement, a stablecoin-based interbank foreign exchange settlement technology developed by FairSquareLab.
Participants in the initiative expect that instant settlement through stablecoins will reduce dependence on intermediaries involved in processing international foreign exchange transactions. They also expect the model to improve capital efficiency and lower the costs associated with maintaining liquidity throughout the trading day.
In 2026, stablecoins were increasingly used for cross-border B2B payments, with corporate transactions accounting for nearly 98% of the total volume of such transfers.
