Blockchain infrastructure firm Chainlink has launched Project Pangea, an initiative to make foreign exchange (FX) settlement near-instantaneous by moving from the standard T+2 (two business days) to T+0 (same-day) settlement. The project brings together financial institutions from South Korea and Europe that collectively represent over $10 trillion in assets under management, aiming to use stablecoins for cross-border FX payments.
Project participants and scope
Project Pangea involves Chainlink, South Korean digital asset infrastructure firm FairSquareLab, the Korean banking consortium UniKA (Unified Korea Alliance), and Qivalis, a euro-denominated stablecoin consortium backed by 37 European banks. UniKA's steering committee includes Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, Kbank, FairSquareLab, and OBDIA, along with more than 10 South Korean commercial banks. The initiative focuses on the Europe–South Korea trade corridor, which handles over $150 billion in goods and services annually, one of the world's busiest trade routes.
How it works
The project uses regulated euro- and won-denominated stablecoins and employs an atomic Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) mechanism, settling both legs of a currency trade simultaneously. This eliminates the risk that only one side settles, reducing counterparty and settlement risk. Rather than replacing existing banking systems, Project Pangea leverages the Swift and ISO 20022 messaging standards that banks already use. When a bank sends a trade instruction through traditional channels, Chainlink's infrastructure converts it into an on-chain settlement on the Pangea L1 Network, a neutral settlement-dedicated layer-1 blockchain.
Timeline and goals
Chainlink's Niki Ariyasinghe said Project Pangea is not just a proof-of-concept but aims to build actual infrastructure, targeting real transactions within 12 months, all within existing legal and regulatory compliance frameworks. The initiative seeks to reduce liquidity costs, lower settlement risks, and provide faster access to funds tied up in cross-border transactions. Chainlink positions the effort as a collaborative framework connecting traditional financial infrastructure with on-chain settlement, not as a replacement for incumbent institutions.