Swift Blockchain Ledger Ready, 17 Banks to Pilot Tokenized Payments

Swift, the cooperative behind most cross-border bank messaging, said Wednesday its blockchain-based ledger is ready for initial use. Seventeen banks from six continents will pilot live tokenized deposit payments on the shared ledger, aiming for 24/7 settlement. The system, built in roughly nine months, acts as an orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenized deposits, letting institutions move customer funds overnight and on weekends before final settlement through existing rails.

Participants include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, MUFG, HSBC, Citi, and a dozen others spanning ANZ to Standard Chartered. The test offers a real-world check on tokenized deposits – the regulated banking sector's answer to stablecoins. Rather than cede digital payments to crypto-native issuers, the world's largest banks are building on-chain plumbing of their own.

Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and MUFG, each carrying Moderate Alpha Scores of 66, 64 and 57 respectively on AlphaScala, are among the institutions stepping into the pilot. The effort positions bank-issued tokens to compete directly with stablecoins for cross-border flows, especially as crypto market volumes continue to grow.

The launch follows a wave of bank tokenization. A group of the largest U.S. banks is planning its own tokenized deposit network through The Clearing House by 2027, and lenders from JPMorgan to Citi have rolled out individual deposit-token products over the past year. Swift's advantage is reach: it already sits between virtually every bank on earth.

Swift positioned the ledger as a foundation for programmable money and agentic commerce, with functionality expanding after an initial controlled go-live. Chief Business Officer Thierry Chilosi said the goal is to let tokenized value move across borders with the speed "modern commerce expects" while keeping the compliance and resilience of established finance. The broader push also includes accelerating conventional payments, 75% of which Swift says now reach the recipient bank within 10 minutes.