Qivalis Says Stablecoins Are Reshaping Global Trade Finance

What to Know

• Qivalis CEO and founder Jan-Oliver Sell says the trade finance supply chain is increasingly moving into stablecoins.
• Qivalis has onboarded 37 European banks in the past year and has grown from one employee to about 40 staffers.
• The euro-pegged stablecoin issuer is close to securing an Electronic Money Institution license in the Netherlands from the Dutch Central Bank.
• Qivalis aims to go live with a regulated euro stablecoin by the end of this year.
• Sell says stablecoins are changing collateral movement by allowing some market participants to rotate collateral in minutes rather than days.
• Trade finance activity involving stablecoins is drawing attention in regions including Asia, LatAm and Africa.
• Sell expects a multi-stablecoin world in which flows resemble fiat currency markets rather than a system dominated only by dollar tokens.
• Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets framework is viewed by Qivalis as giving institutions more certainty while U.S. legislation faces delays.

Stablecoins Move Deeper Into Trade Finance

Stablecoins are expanding beyond the familiar cross-border payment narrative and into the deeper plumbing of global trade finance, where businesses rely on cash flow, credit instruments and collateral movement to support commerce across borders. Jan-Oliver Sell, CEO and founder of Qivalis, says the change is no longer theoretical. In FXCOINZ market coverage, the message from Qivalis is that the trade finance supply chain is increasingly being rebuilt around stablecoin rails, with payments and collateral beginning to operate more continuously across jurisdictions.

Trade finance has long been viewed as one of the areas most likely to benefit from distributed ledger technology. The sector is historically linked to documentation-heavy processes, slow settlement cycles and a dependence on intermediaries that coordinate trust between exporters, importers, financiers and commodity-linked businesses. Stablecoins, when used as digital cash instruments, add a payment layer to that modernization effort. For Qivalis, that is the key difference now emerging: the documents and workflows may have been digitized before, but the cash leg was often missing from the same environment.

Sell argues that this missing payment component is now being filled by liquid stablecoins. That changes the discussion from a narrow technology upgrade to a potentially broader restructuring of how trade-related money moves. Instead of using blockchain systems only to streamline paperwork, market participants can increasingly use stablecoins to settle value, move collateral and maintain liquidity inside digital networks without immediately returning to traditional fiat rails.

Collateral Rotation Speeds Up

The clearest impact described by Qivalis is the acceleration of collateral movement. Sell pointed to the example of a supplier in East Africa trading with someone in Kazakhstan, where the transaction can be conducted using stablecoins without an off-ramp into fiat. In that kind of setup, collateral can move much faster, and the business model can change because market participants may rotate collateral in minutes rather than days.

That speed matters in trade finance because collateral is not merely a back-office detail. It supports credit extension, risk management, settlement confidence and the ability of firms to keep goods and payments moving. When collateral is tied up for days, capital can become less efficient. When it can move in minutes, some businesses may be able to reuse liquidity more rapidly, manage exposure more dynamically and reduce friction across multi-country supply chains.

Qivalis says conversations across the ecosystem show that trade finance has become a focus in regions including Asia, LatAm and Africa. These are regions where cross-border commerce, currency volatility, banking access and settlement efficiency can be especially important for businesses. Stablecoins may appeal to some participants because they can provide a digital settlement instrument that moves across borders more easily than traditional bank rails, although the extent of adoption depends on regulation, liquidity, banking relationships and counterparty acceptance.

Qivalis Builds Toward a Regulated Euro Stablecoin

Qivalis itself has moved quickly as the stablecoin conversation has broadened. Sell said that one year ago he was the only employee at the company. Qivalis has since grown to about 40 staffers and has onboarded 37 European banks in the past year. The company is also close to securing an Electronic Money Institution license in the Netherlands from the Dutch Central Bank.

The planned product is a regulated euro stablecoin, with Qivalis aiming to go live by the end of this year. The company’s positioning reflects a wider European push to develop digital money instruments that are aligned with local regulatory expectations and denominated in the region’s own currency. That is especially relevant because the existing stablecoin market is still dominated by U.S. dollar-pegged tokens, particularly those issued by Tether and Circle.

Sell’s view is that dollar-denominated stablecoins will not be the final structure for every major economy. He argues that Europeans are not going to live in dollars. While dollar stablecoins may be acceptable in some markets where local currencies are volatile, he does not see that as the preferred long-term model for the European Union. He also said Japanese and Korean users would rather have instruments tied to the Japanese yen or Korean won than operate entirely in U.S. dollars.

From Dollar Dominance to a Multi-Stablecoin Market

The stablecoin market today remains heavily weighted toward the U.S. dollar, but Qivalis expects the landscape to become more diverse. Sell described a future multi-stablecoin world where flows start to resemble fiat currency markets. In that model, different stablecoins would be used depending on the commercial context, local currency needs, regulatory environment and preferences of counterparties.

Such a market would not necessarily eliminate dollar stablecoins. Instead, it could add more local-currency options for trade, treasury management, payments and collateral. For European institutions, a regulated euro-pegged token could offer a way to participate in digital settlement while keeping accounting, balance sheet exposure and customer obligations closer to the currency they already use. The same logic could eventually apply to other major currency zones if local issuers and regulators support stablecoin infrastructure.

The shift also has implications for banks. Qivalis has a growing number of banks as shareholders in the project, and its onboarding of 37 European banks suggests that regulated financial institutions are watching the space closely. Banks may see stablecoins as both a competitive challenge and an infrastructure opportunity. If trade clients begin using tokenized cash for settlement, banks will need to decide how to integrate those rails into custody, compliance, foreign exchange, lending and transaction banking services.

Why the Cash Leg Matters

Earlier business blockchain efforts, including work by firms such as R3 and Hyperledger, targeted the paper-based side of trade transactions. Instruments such as letters of credit were an obvious focus because they involve documentation, verification and coordination between multiple parties. However, Sell said those initiatives did not have the cash leg and payment side onchain.

That distinction is central to the current stablecoin moment. Digitizing documentation can reduce administrative friction, but if the payment still settles through separate legacy channels, the process remains only partly modernized. Stablecoins provide a way to put the payment instrument into the same digital environment as the transaction workflow. This can potentially make settlement, collateral transfer and reconciliation more synchronized.

Market participants are therefore watching whether stablecoins can deliver practical benefits in active trade finance settings rather than only in crypto-native markets. The most important questions are operational as much as technological: whether stablecoins have enough liquidity, whether counterparties trust the issuer, whether banks can support compliance obligations and whether regulators provide clear rules for issuance, redemption and reserves.

Europe’s Regulatory Opening

Qivalis sees Europe’s regulatory environment as a significant factor. Sell pointed to delays in U.S. legislation around the Clarity Act as extending an opportunity for Europe. In contrast, Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets framework gives institutions a clearer sense of where they stand. For banks and other regulated firms, legal certainty can be as important as technology when deciding whether to support a new form of settlement asset.

Some U.S. bank-heavy stablecoin consortia have emerged more recently, but Sell suggested they may be some way behind Qivalis when it comes to a serious go-live date. He said it took Qivalis three and a half years to reach its current point, underscoring the amount of time required to build a regulated stablecoin project with institutional backing.

The competitive race is therefore not simply about who can issue a token first. It is about regulatory authorization, bank participation, operational readiness, liquidity, governance and integration into real use cases. Trade finance may become an important proving ground because it demands reliability, cross-border reach and a clear connection between payments, collateral and commercial activity.

What It Means for Digital Asset Markets

For digital asset markets, Qivalis’ comments reinforce the idea that stablecoins are becoming infrastructure rather than merely trading tools. Stablecoins are already widely used for crypto market liquidity and cross-border transfers, but trade finance would place them inside mainstream commercial flows. If adoption grows, stablecoins could become part of the operating stack for global commerce, particularly where counterparties need faster settlement and more flexible collateral movement.

Still, the pace of change will likely differ by region and use case. Adoption depends on trust in issuers, redemption mechanics, banking integration, regulatory approval and the willingness of businesses to adjust established processes. Qivalis’ expansion, its bank onboarding and its pursuit of a Dutch EMI license show how much emphasis institutional stablecoin builders are placing on regulation and credibility.

FXCOINZ will continue monitoring whether regulated euro stablecoins can gain meaningful traction in trade finance and whether the market shifts from a dollar-dominated structure toward a broader set of currency-linked digital cash instruments. For now, Qivalis is positioning itself at the intersection of European regulation, bank participation and the stablecoin-driven transformation of global trade finance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Qivalis?

Qivalis is an independent euro-pegged stablecoin builder led by CEO and founder Jan-Oliver Sell. The company has onboarded 37 European banks in the past year and has grown to about 40 staffers.

What did Jan-Oliver Sell say about trade finance?

Sell said the trade finance supply chain is moving into stablecoins. He described a shift in which some participants are using stablecoins for payments and collateral movement without immediately off-ramping to fiat.

Why are stablecoins relevant to trade finance?

Stablecoins can provide a digital payment leg for trade finance workflows. That matters because earlier blockchain efforts often focused on documentation, while stablecoins may allow value and collateral to move within the same digital environment.

How can stablecoins change collateral movement?

Sell said stablecoins can allow collateral to rotate in minutes rather than days in some trade finance settings. Faster collateral movement may improve capital efficiency and alter how businesses manage cross-border transactions.

What license is Qivalis seeking?

Qivalis is close to securing an Electronic Money Institution license in the Netherlands from the Dutch Central Bank. The company aims to go live with a regulated euro stablecoin by the end of this year.

Why does Qivalis focus on a euro stablecoin?

Sell argues that Europeans are not going to live in dollars and that the market will evolve toward multiple stablecoins tied to different currencies. A euro stablecoin could serve European institutions and businesses that want digital settlement in their own currency.

Are dollar stablecoins still dominant?

Yes. The stablecoin market is dominated by U.S. dollar-pegged tokens, particularly those issued by Tether and Circle. Qivalis expects the market to broaden over time into a multi-stablecoin structure.

How does European regulation affect stablecoin development?

Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets framework gives institutions clearer rules for crypto activity. Qivalis sees that clarity as an advantage while U.S. legislative delays continue to affect the competitive landscape.

When does Qivalis plan to launch its regulated euro stablecoin?

Qivalis aims to go live with a regulated euro stablecoin by the end of this year, subject to its licensing and operational progress.