SWIFT To Commence Digital Asset Transactions Starting 2025

Global financial institutions will soon be able to utilize SWIFT's global platform to test transactions for the settlement of digital assets and currencies, Swift announced on Thursday.

Although it plays a crucial role in the worldwide payment system, SWIFT solely functions as a platform for exchanging messages and does not handle funds.

This new development represents a major advancement from SWIFT's previous experiments. "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," said Tom Zschach, SWIFT's chief innovation officer.

Despite its impressive size, global adoption will remain fragmented without interconnectivity between platforms.

The upcoming trials will use our current worldwide network to connect different digital and traditional currency platforms, offering a unified system for banks to conduct cross-border transactions with both digital and fiat currencies, helping this emerging market expand.

These trials and collaborative innovations are a critical step in achieving global interoperability for these new forms of value, and our global network is an essential bridge between traditional and digital asset platforms said SWIFT in the same press release.