
Key Takeaways:
- SWIFT will begin digital asset trials in 2025, involving banks across North America, Europe, and Asia, focusing on payments, FX, and trade.
- The trials aim to unify fragmented digital asset ecosystems by connecting diverse digital and traditional currencies.
- SWIFT continues to explore blockchain and tokenization, integrating emerging digital assets with existing financial systems.
SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is set to launch trials in 2025 involving banks from North America, Europe, and Asia to explore digital assets and currencies.
The initiative aims to enable financial institutions to access multiple digital asset classes through a unified platform, focusing on payments, foreign exchange, securities, and trade.
Exciting news! Starting next year, financial institutions from around the world will start trialling live digital asset and currency transactions on the Swift network.
— Swift (@swiftcommunity) October 3, 2024
This marks an important milestone in our journey to enable banks to transact interchangeably across both… pic.twitter.com/70BxOMoBpT
These trials address the fragmented digital asset ecosystem, which SWIFT refers to as “digital islands” caused by unconnected platforms.
The trials will focus on bridging gaps between digital and traditional financial systems, fostering seamless global transactions.
Commercial and central banks will be able to conduct live trials of digital-asset transactions on the Swift messaging network starting next year https://t.co/9d91KhZatP
— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) October 3, 2024
SWIFT also emphasizes blockchain and tokenization technology, building on past projects like Project Agorá, which explored tokenized commercial deposits and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
The trials will test SWIFT’s ability to interlink diverse digital networks with traditional fiat currencies, though specific digital assets for the trials remain undisclosed.
This effort underscores SWIFT’s commitment to cross-chain interoperability and integrating digital and traditional financial systems globally.