SWIFT Crypto Ledger Launches With 17 Banks Onboard

SWIFT's swift crypto ledger has moved out of sandbox testing and into live use, with 17 major banks now cleared to pilot cross border payments on a blockchain built over the past nine months using Hyperledger Besu. HSBC, Citi, UBS, BNP Paribas, DBS, ANZ, and Standard Chartered are among the first participants.

What The Shared Ledger Actually Changes

The system does not replace existing rails. It sits above them, coordinating tokenized deposits between banks while final settlement still runs through RTGS systems and Swift's existing messaging network. When a bank initiates a transaction, the ledger synchronizes funding commitments across counterparties and gives every participant the same real time view of payment status.

The tokens involved are bank issued tokenized deposits, not stablecoins or public crypto assets. Each one is backed one to one by commercial bank deposits, so it carries the same regulated status as money sitting in a normal bank account. Swift already clears 75 percent of payments to beneficiary banks within 10 minutes, often in seconds, on its current infrastructure. The gap the ledger is built to close is different: the dependency on overlapping business hours between sender and receiver banks.

That dependency is what creates settlement dead zones on nights, weekends, and across time zones. A 24/7 settlement capability, if it holds up at scale, would remove a structural bottleneck that speed alone never solved.

Why The Compliance Design Is The Real Story

Swift deliberately left the compliance, credit, risk, and control architecture of existing payment systems untouched. Rather than standing up a parallel settlement network with its own rules, the ledger operates inside the regulatory framework banks already use. That choice addresses the main reason regulators and large banks have been slow to embrace tokenized payment infrastructure: fear of losing oversight.

Thierry Chilosi, Swift's Chief Business Officer, framed the platform as a way to move tokenized value across borders at the speed commerce now demands, while preserving the resilience, security, and compliance global institutions expect. That framing, upgrade rather than replacement, is likely the reason 17 banks agreed to participate rather than wait for a rival standard to mature.

Scale Of The Bank Lineup

The pilot spans institutions across six continents: ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citi, DBS, First Abu Dhabi Bank, FirstRand Bank, HSBC, Itau Unibanco, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq, MUFG Bank, OCBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, UOB, and Wells Fargo.

• Coverage spans dollar, euro, and major Asian currency corridors
• Swift's underlying network already connects more than 11,500 financial institutions in over 200 countries
• No public token or market price is attached to this pilot, unlike stablecoin or public blockchain projects

That breadth gives the trial an international footprint from day one, rather than a narrow regional test that would need years to expand.

Competing Tokenization Efforts

Swift is not alone in this push. A separate group including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, and BNY Mellon is building a US focused tokenized deposit network through The Clearing House, aiming for a first half 2027 launch. Intercontinental Exchange, parent of NYSE, has outlined a 24/7 settlement venue for tokenized securities funded with stablecoins, and NYSE itself partnered with Securitize in March on blockchain infrastructure for tokenized stocks and ETFs.

Payments, deposits, and securities markets are each edging toward always on, blockchain based settlement. Swift's advantage is reach: few blockchain payment networks can claim a user base anywhere close to 11,500 institutions across 200 countries.

Next Steps For The Shared Ledger

Swift has already flagged upcoming phases covering foreign exchange payment versus payment, programmable corporate payments, and cash movements linked to securities transactions. Whether the current 17 bank rollout converts into meaningful transaction volume, rather than a bounded pilot, is the open question the next stage of testing will have to answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Swift Using XRP Ledger?

No. Swift's shared ledger pilot is built on Hyperledger Besu, a permissioned Ethereum based framework, and uses bank issued tokenized deposits, not the XRP Ledger or the XRP token.

Is Swift Testing XRP Ledger?

No. Swift's current cross border payment pilot with 17 banks runs on Hyperledger Besu infrastructure. There is no indication in this rollout that Swift is testing or integrating the XRP Ledger.