The race to modernize cross-border payments has taken a decisive turn.
SWIFT, the backbone of international banking communications, is moving beyond messaging and into blockchain infrastructure – with ConsenSys, the Ethereum development powerhouse, tapped as its technology partner.
Rather than leaning on Ripple’s XRPL, long seen as a natural fit for interbank transfers, SWIFT has chosen ConsenSys’ Linea network to test how global value can be settled directly on-chain. The choice signals a strategic shift toward Ethereum’s ecosystem, seen by many banks as more flexible for scaling tokenized assets.
From Messaging to Value Movement
For decades, SWIFT has served as the neutral rails connecting banks worldwide. Now it wants to expand that role. At the Sibos 2025 conference, executives described plans for a shared ledger capable of validating, sequencing and enforcing transactions in real time – 24 hours a day, across borders. Unlike today’s patchwork of systems, the vision is a continuous payments backbone built directly on blockchain.
Who’s Involved
More than 30 of the world’s largest financial institutions, including JPMorgan, HSBC and Bank of America, are already inside the tent. Their role is not passive: they will shape the design, test early prototypes, and decide how the system evolves through multiple phases of development.
If the pilot succeeds, banks will be able to move regulated tokenized assets at scale – not just money but securities and other instruments. SWIFT insists its mission is limited to infrastructure, leaving central banks to determine which assets can circulate across the system.
Chainlink and the Bigger Picture
The move also builds on SWIFT’s earlier collaborations with Chainlink, which focused on bridging legacy banking infrastructure with blockchain networks. The difference now is depth: instead of connecting to external ledgers, SWIFT itself will operate one.
The experiment could become one of the most significant transitions in modern finance. A trusted institution that once only carried messages may soon also carry value, blurring the line between traditional banking networks and decentralized blockchain ecosystems. For global markets accustomed to delays, cut-off times and opaque settlement chains, the prospect of instant, programmable transactions would represent nothing short of a revolution.
