Singapore Gulf Bank, a digitally native bank headquartered in Bahrain, opened a 1:1 mint and redeem service for USDC on Solana, according to the bank's announcement shared on April 17, 2026. Institutional clients can now swap US dollars for Circle's stablecoin at par, with no spread applied by the bank, and convert back the same way.
The move puts a licensed, regulated bank directly into the stablecoin primary issuance flow on a chain that has become the main rival to Ethereum for stablecoin transfer volume.
A licensed bank as a primary on-ramp
Most institutional stablecoin minting today still routes through Circle's direct partners or through crypto-native market makers who charge a spread. Singapore Gulf Bank is collapsing part of that chain. Clients wire dollars, the bank issues USDC on Solana, and redemptions run the same way in reverse.
The 1:1 claim is the headline. In practice, stablecoin mint and redeem pricing almost always includes either a spread, a fee, or minimum size requirements. The bank did not publish a fee schedule with the launch post, so the economics for small-size flow are still unclear. For large treasury flows, even a few basis points of saved spread is meaningful.
Circle's USDC supply stood at roughly $60 billion heading into April 2026, with Solana accounting for a growing share of transfer volume alongside Ethereum and Base. The market snapshot from the same day has SOL at $87.83, up 3.3% over 24 hours and 5% on the week, while BTC sits at $75,402 and ETH at $2,351.
Why Solana specifically
The choice of Solana is not incidental. Solana's combination of sub-cent fees and sub-second finality has made it the preferred chain for high-frequency stablecoin settlement, payments experiments, and fintech integrations. Stripe, Shopify, and Visa all ship USDC settlement rails that include Solana. Singapore Gulf Bank is stepping into a lane where the distribution already exists.
It also signals something about where licensed banks are placing bets for the next cycle of stablecoin infrastructure. A year ago, a bank launching stablecoin rails would almost certainly have chosen Ethereum L1 or a permissioned chain. Today, a Bahrain-regulated institution picks Solana as its first venue and says so publicly.
What this changes for treasury desks
For a corporate treasury that wants USDC on Solana for working capital, payroll across borders, or settlement with crypto-native counterparties, the current flow is wire to an exchange, buy USDC, bridge or withdraw. Every leg carries a spread, a fee, or a counterparty risk against a non-bank.
A direct bank-issued mint removes the exchange and the market maker from that path. The bank itself becomes the counterparty, and the asset lands directly on Solana without an intermediate bridge. That is a materially shorter path, and it is the kind of plumbing improvement that large-size stablecoin users actually care about.
The flip side: clients have to clear whatever KYC and onboarding Singapore Gulf Bank requires, which will be considerably heavier than opening an account with an exchange. This service is aimed squarely at institutions, treasury operators, and fintechs, not retail users. A licensed bank cannot run a retail-style signup funnel and stay compliant.
The broader stablecoin banking trend
Singapore Gulf Bank is part of a small but growing group of licensed banks integrating stablecoin issuance and redemption directly into their product stacks. ClearBank became the first Dutch bank to offer crypto services under MiCA's fast track earlier this year, with a specific focus on EURC and USDC for corporate clients.
Twelve European banks are also building their own euro stablecoin consortium through Qivalis, targeting launch in the second half of 2026. That is a different model, banks issuing their own token rather than distributing Circle's, but the direction of travel is the same. Regulated institutions are getting into the stablecoin stack rather than ceding it entirely to crypto-native issuers.
Circle, meanwhile, now holds roughly half the euro stablecoin market through EURC after MiCA cleared most of the field. More licensed bank partners for USDC and EURC distribution fits the pattern Circle has been pushing for the last 18 months: become the infrastructure layer that banks plug into, rather than competing with them.
Overview
Singapore Gulf Bank launched a 1:1 USDC mint and redeem service on Solana for institutional clients on April 17, 2026. The bank is acting as a direct on-ramp into Circle's stablecoin, bypassing exchanges and market makers for its clients' stablecoin flows. The choice of Solana as the launch chain, rather than Ethereum or a permissioned venue, reflects where regulated institutions now see stablecoin settlement volume concentrating. Fee details beyond the 1:1 par claim have not been published.
