SWIFT just launched a blockchain shared ledger with JPMorgan, HSBC & 30+ banks to settle USD stablecoins in seconds. The biggest institutional strike yet against slow wires and crypto rails.
London/Zurich, November 23, 2025: SWIFT, the cooperative that moves $150 trillion across borders every year, has launched its most ambitious blockchain experiment yet
A permissioned shared ledger designed to settle USD-pegged stablecoins and tokenized assets in real time, effectively replacing decades-old messaging silos with a single source of truth.
The breakthrough prototype, powered by Linea (an Ethereum Layer-2 zkEVM), is already in active pilot with more than 30 of the world’s largest banks and financial market infrastructures.
The goal: slash cross-border settlement times from days to seconds while keeping compliance, privacy, and anti-money-laundering controls baked in.
For half a century, SWIFT has relied on encrypted messaging (MT and now ISO 20022) to coordinate payments between 11,000+ institutions. That system works, but it’s slow, expensive, and increasingly outgunned by stablecoin networks that already move billions 24/7.
Facing existential pressure from Ripple, Stellar, Visa’s USDC settlements, and a wave of incoming CBDCs, SWIFT began experimenting with distributed ledger technology in 2022.
Earlier trials with Chainlink, UBS, and others proved tokenized fund transfers could work. The new shared-ledger pilot takes the concept mainstream, focusing squarely on regulated stablecoins and enterprise-grade privacy.
Instead of sending hundreds of separate messages that each bank must reconcile individually, the new system records every transaction once on a permissioned, real-time ledger.
Smart contracts automatically enforce sequencing, validation, and business rules.
Key technical features:
Participating institutions include JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, MUFG, Santander, Standard Chartered, OCBC, and central securities depositories across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
ANZ Banking Group called it “the most significant upgrade to global payment rails in decades.” DBS Bank in Singapore described the ledger as “the missing piece for always-on corporate treasury.”
Not everything is solved. Live trials are only scheduled to begin in November 2025, and integrating with thousands of legacy core-banking systems remains complex.
Regulators in the UK and EU continue to warn about stablecoin systemic risk, and some X fintech commentators question whether a permissioned Layer-2 can truly outscale public chains long-term.
SWIFT’s shared-ledger pilot is not another proof-of-concept, it is the clearest signal yet that the world’s most powerful financial cooperative has decided blockchain is no longer optional.
If the November trials deliver, 2026 could mark the beginning of the end for multi-day cross-border delays and the dawn of instant, always-on global stablecoin flows.
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SWIFT’s shared ledger is a permissioned, real-time blockchain system that lets banks settle USD-pegged stablecoins and tokenized assets instantly using smart contracts and ConsenSys Linea (Ethereum Layer-2), eliminating traditional messaging silos.
Transactions achieve finality in seconds with 24/7 availability, compared to the current 1–5 business days for traditional cross-border wires.
JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, MUFG, Santander, Standard Chartered, OCBC, ANZ, DBS, and over 20 others, plus multiple central securities depositories.
Conceptual proofs are running now (Q4 2025); live production trials for FX, securities, and trade finance are targeted for November 2025, with broader rollout timeline still under review.
No, it’s designed to coexist and compete by offering regulated institutions a compliant, private, bank-controlled alternative that integrates with existing SWIFT rails and legacy systems.
