Chainlink has launched Project Pangea with banking groups in Europe and South Korea to develop a real-time foreign exchange settlement framework using regulated stablecoins, ISO 20022 messaging and existing Swift infrastructure. The initiative brings together more than 50 banks and financial institutions representing over $10 trillion in assets under management, with a focus on moving parts of the FX market from traditional T+2 settlement toward T+0, atomic payment-versus-payment settlement.
Chainlink launches Pangea for T+0 FX settlement
Project Pangea was announced by Chainlink, FairSquareLab, UniKA and Qivalis as a collaborative task force aimed at modernizing cross-border FX settlement. UniKA, the Korean coalition behind the project, includes a steering committee made up of Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, Kbank, FairSquareLab and OBDIA, alongside more than 10 participating Korean commercial banks. Qivalis is described as a euro stablecoin consortium powered by 37 leading European banks.
The project targets a structural issue in global foreign exchange: the market processes more than $9.6 trillion in daily trading volume, yet settlement often still relies on delayed cycles and fragmented market infrastructure. Project Pangea is designed to support direct atomic swaps of compliant, fiat-referenced digital assets, including EUR and KRW stablecoins, reducing the need for intermediary currency conversions in cross-border flows.
Fernando Vazquez, president of capital markets at Chainlink Labs, framed the initiative as part of a broader shift in institutional settlement infrastructure. “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.”
Banks test atomic EUR-KRW swaps onchain via Swift
The Pangea architecture combines traditional banking messaging with blockchain-based settlement. Banks would continue using ISO 20022 messaging and existing Swift infrastructure, while Chainlink’s connectivity and data services translate instructions into onchain settlement actions. The framework is structured around a banking layer for Swift and ISO 20022, a connectivity layer using Chainlink CCIP and Data Streams, and a settlement layer using Pangea AMM smart contracts on networks such as Ethereum, Polygon and the Pangea L1.
Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Standard is intended to support transfers of EUR stablecoins from their native networks to the KRW settlement chain, while Chainlink Data Streams would provide high-speed FX market data for FairSquareLab’s Proactive Market Maker engine. Chainlink’s Runtime Environment is positioned as the orchestration layer between Swift and blockchains. FairSquareLab’s FX settlement technology is designed to anchor price discovery to oracle-based FX quotes rather than a bonding curve, with depletion barriers intended to protect pool liquidity.
Joonhong Kim, CEO of FairSquareLab, said the project has strategic relevance for Korea’s banking sector. “For Korea, Project Pangea is more than an efficiency gain — it opens a path for the Korean won to connect more directly with global currency markets, reducing reliance on intermediary currencies. Together with Qivalis and Chainlink, and leading the UniKA alliance, Fairsquarelab is building a network that brings the Korean banking sector into a new era of real-time, cross-border settlement and redefines how value moves across borders.”
Jean-Luc Gustave, head of partnerships for APAC at Qivalis, said the project could become a practical test case for institutional stablecoin-based FX settlement between Europe and South Korea. “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.”
Project Pangea marks another step in the convergence of bank messaging systems, regulated stablecoins and blockchain settlement infrastructure. Its significance will depend on how the participating institutions move from framework development to production usage, but the design points to a clear institutional objective: faster FX settlement without requiring banks to abandon the systems and standards they already use.
AI Transparency Note: This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI system based on the sources listed and was reviewed, edited, and approved by a human editor before publication. All quotes, data points, and factual claims are intended to be grounded in the cited source material; however, errors cannot be ruled out entirely.
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