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SWIFT’s digital transformation strategy is gaining momentum as its blockchain layer moves to MVP implementation. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) blockchain-based shared ledger is being developed on open-source foundations.
The SWIFT ledger will accelerate the industry’s transition to digital finance across more than 200 countries, and aims to enable interoperability between banks and streamline 24/7
cross-border payments.
Here’s a look at the SWIFT ledger’s new tech stack and business opportunities it’s putting forward.
When Will SWIFT’s Blockchain Go Live and What It Represents
On March 30, SWIFT announced it had successfully completed the design phase of its blockchain-based shared ledger. The Belgium-based cooperative is now building its first iteration.
In development since September 2025, and in collaboration with a number of global banks, the ledger’s main goal is to streamline 24/7 global payment across borders, leveraging blockchain technology.
SWIFT said the MVP of the ledger will go live with real-world transactions this year.
“SWIFT has set an ambitious pace, with plans to initiate a pilot program within this year,” Maghnus Mareneck, co-founder and co-CEO of Cosmos Labs, the infrastructure powering the Cosmos blockchain stack used by T-Mobile, Mastercard, Binance, Ondo, and Polygon, told FinTech Weekly.
“We expect that a select group of participating banks will begin executing transactions as part of this pilot,” said Mareneck.
For investors in the fintech and banking industry, this transformation represents the clearest validation yet that tokenized deposits are becoming core financial infrastructure, he added.
“SWIFT moving this way shows that tokenisation and always-on financial infrastructure are becoming a much more serious priority for the global financial system,” Martin de Rijke, Head of Growth at Maple Finance, told FinTech Weekly.
“For investors, that matters because it signals that major incumbents are starting to build for a world where money moves faster, markets stay open longer, and cross-border payments become a lot more flexible,” said de Rijke.
SWIFT blockchain will also generate a larger pool of capital flow for on-chain management products by supporting the growth of stablecoins and other digital cash instruments.
Opportunities in the Digital Asset Service Transformation Sectors
Digital asset technologies have been transforming the banking industry for years.
A Ripple report found that banks invested more than $100 billion in blockchain infrastructure from 2020 to 2024. A total of 345 blockchain deals have already been signed with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, leading the wave, followed by JP Morgan and Mitsubishi UFJ.
Firms like JP Morgan have already moved to on-chain cross-border transactions, while banks like HSBC continue to develop, scale, and explore their own digital asset blockchain-based services. Ninety percent of finance leaders expect blockchain and digital assets to have a major impact on finance by 2028.
“For investors, the opportunity is in the infrastructure layer that makes this possible,” said Mareneck.
Banks will need ledger technology, connectivity between ledgers, compliance tooling, and integration with existing core banking systems. The companies building that plumbing, whether it is for Swift's network or for the many banks and payment networks that will want similar capabilities on their own terms, are where the value creation sits, Mareneck said.
“We expect an entirely new category of financial infrastructure to appear and become key,” he added.
“Anytime a network like SWIFT starts upgrading its rails, it creates an opportunity for the companies building around that shift, whether that is interoperability, treasury tools, tokenised cash movement, or new ways for institutions to access liquidity across markets,” said Martin de Rijke.
As more payment and settlement rails adopt stablecoins as a core backbone, this also opens up more room for credit products and creates a greater opportunity to raise and deploy stablecoin capital more efficiently.
“The bigger picture is that as global payments become more real-time and more digital, there is real value in helping financial institutions make that transition in a way that is simple, secure, and commercially useful,” said Martin de Rijke.
Understanding SWIFT’s Blockchain Strategy and Stablecoin Tech Stack
SWIFT’s blockchain strategy goes beyond the global trend of digital modernization. A shared ledger brings the inherent benefits of speed, accountability, and security. However, SWIFT’s strategy is more ambitious.
“The real story isn't TradFi vs. crypto, but their convergence,” Bill Zielke, Chief Revenue Officer at BitPay, company widely considered the world's largest dedicated cryptocurrency payment processor, told FinTech Weekly. “From here, what drives real adoption is how well they connect and how invisible the seams are,” said Zielke.
“This is less about a crypto headline and more about infrastructure control,” Galvin Lee Kuan Sian, Lecturer of Marketing and Economics at Taylor's College, told FinTech Weekly.
“SWIFT aims to evolve from a trusted messaging system to a trusted platform for regulated digital currencies, which is strategically crucial,” said Lee.
SWIFT's strategy is to remain the central platform where regulated institutions manage value transfers, even as finance evolves to become more programmable, continuous, and spread across various ledgers and networks, Lee explained.
“SWIFT is explicitly geared towards interoperability with both current and future networks, including public and private ones, indicating its desire to stay relevant to established banks while attracting participants operating in newer tokenized environments,” said Lee.
The shared ledger tech stack of SWIFT is notable on its own. The MVP is built on open-source, using an EVM-compatible architecture with Hyperledger Besu.
It functions as a shared digital layer that records and validates interbank payment commitments, using tokenised deposits as value.
“This shows SWIFT isn’t ignoring the Ethereum ecosystem; rather, it borrows from it, tailoring it for enterprise governance and regulated finance,” said Lee. Why not just use the Ethereum network? It is most likely because a top banking network needs more than programmability, Lee answered.
“It requires controlled governance, permissioning, compliance, predictable operations, and integration with existing bank workflows,” said Lee.
Besu is an Ethereum client running on both public and private networks, suitable for secure, permissioned, high-performance enterprise environments. SWIFT opts for EVM compatibility while avoiding the full risks and governance issues of a public permissionless chain. This is a strategic choice, not a contradiction.
SWIFT’s move is as much about staying competitive as it is about improving performance. Stablecoins, always-on commerce, and blockchain-native payment platforms have reset what "fast enough" means for cross-border money movement, Zielke from BitPay explained.
“The future is multiple networks and assets running in parallel, so the winners will be those making it easier to move between them, not ones betting everything on a single rail,” he added.
Viewed through a global perspective, SWIFT's adoption of blockchain technology is part of a broader wave where fragmented global and local financial, fintech, and banking systems coexist.
As tokens are adopted globally, traditional banking institutions work to establish dominant positions and influence the rules of tokenised finance before the market breaks into isolated segments. This global transformation is opening up the financial supply chain, generating new business opportunities
“Success for SWIFT could mean more than faster payments; it could shape the future of regulated digital money,” said Lee.
