Swift to pilot digital currency transactions in 2025

The trials aim to unify digital and fiat currencies for global transactions.

Image: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Key Takeaways

• Swift's 2025 trials will integrate digital and traditional currencies on a global scale.
• Central and commercial banks will be able to use the Swift network to conduct trial transactions of digital currencies and assets,

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Swift announced today it will start piloting live digital asset and currency transactions on its network starting next year. Banks in North America, Europe, and Asia will soon be able to send and receive digital currencies across Swift’s extensive network, which connects over 11,500 financial institutions globally.

Exciting news! Starting next year, financial institutions from around the world will start trialling live digital asset and currency transactions on the Swift network.

This marks an important milestone in our journey to enable banks to transact interchangeably across both… pic.twitter.com/70BxOMoBpT

— Swift (@swiftcommunity) October 3, 2024

Swift aims to unify various currency platforms into a single system. The integration will allow financial institutions to conduct pilot transactions seamlessly using their existing Swift connections, according to the company.

The initial use cases for the trials will focus on payments, foreign exchange, securities, and trade, with the goal of enabling multi-ledger Delivery-versus-Payment (DvP) and Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) transactions.

The new development marks a huge milestone in bridging the gap between traditional finance and the world of digital assets.

“For digital assets and currencies to succeed on a global scale, it’s critical that they can seamlessly coexist with traditional forms of money,” Tom Zschach, Swift’s Chief Innovation Officer, discussed the importance of interoperability between traditional and emerging value forms for global adoption.

The trials, set to facilitate transactions involving both digital and traditional currencies, are also going to make a huge shift from previous blockchain experiments to real-world applications, Swift said.

“With Swift’s vast global reach we are uniquely positioned to bridge both emerging and established forms of value, and we’re now focused on demonstrating this in real-world, mainstream applications,” Zschach said. “As new forms of value emerge, our intention is to continue offering our community the ability to seamlessly make and track transactions of all kinds of assets – using the same secure and resilient infrastructure that is integral to their operations today.”

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