Deutsche Bank has conducted its first euro-denominated cross-border payment via blockchain.

The transaction was performed together with DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets.
Deutsche Bank acted as the settlement bank and DBS acted as the beneficiary bank.

The transaction was conducted via blockchain platform Partior, which Deutsche Bank part owns after an investment in the company’s Series B funding round in 2024.

Deutsche Bank said it collaborated with DBS, which is also a founding shareholder of Partior, to ensure that the blockchain network was interoperable with traditional rails.

This enabled the payment to be executed across different financial market infrastructures, which the bank explained demonstrates the potential of blockchain technology to complement existing rails.

Deutsche Bank said the live transaction represents an important milestone for the future of Deutsche Bank’s cross-border payments solutions offered to financial institution clients.

“We envisage a future using multiple rails, be it SWIFT, Stablecoins, or blockchain-based solutions, where intelligent and negotiated routing produces maximum value in terms of processing efficiency, cost and client experience,” said Ciaran Byrne, head of product management institutional cash management at Deutsche Band. “Blockchain is clearly gaining traction in the industry and will form an integral component of how we service our financial institution clients.

“Through our partnership with Partior, we will offer clients a whole new experience in terms of real-time execution.”

The move comes after nine European banks including ING, KBC, Danske bank and Raiffeisen Bank International announced plans last week to launch a euro-denominated digital stablecoin.

The release of the digital payment instrument, which will leverage blockchain technology, is expected in the second half of 2026.

The banks said the stablecoin will seek to provide near-instant, low-cost payments and settlements, enabling 24/7 access to efficient cross-border payments, programmable payments and improvements in supply chain management and digital asset settlements - from securities to cryptocurrencies.

HSBC also last week unveiled the launch of a new cross-border tokenised deposit service.

The move is part of an expansion of the bank’s existing Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS), a blockchain-based solution that allows corporate clients to move currencies in real-time with instant 24/7 settlement.

Using HSBC’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), traditional fiat deposits are represented by digital tokens, allowing cash movements to be customised and executed instantly from clients’ own systems.

During last week, PayPal Ventures participated in a funding round for Stable, a layer 1 blockchain network designed to facilitate financial transactions through stablecoins.

Through the partnership, Stable users will now be able to use PayPal USD (PYUSD), a stablecoin issued by PayPal and pegged to the US Dollar, for financial transactions.

Stable said the integration of PYUSD into its network will use LayerZero's recent integration to bridge blockchains programmatically.

The company will also explore efforts to provide cross-chain compatibility and onramp/offramp capabilities for PYUSD, which could unlock new use cases for the stablecoin across different blockchain ecosystems.

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