SWIFT has activated a blockchain ledger for its banking network, with 17 banks testing live payments using tokenized deposits. The pilot gives participating institutions a way to move bank-issued digital deposits across the network, while leaving XRP outside the settlement arrangement described in the source.
SWIFT introduced the ledger with Consensys at the Sibos conference in September 2025. It finalized the design by March 2026 and announced on July 9 that the system was ready for initial testing. The 17 participating banks span six continents and include Citi, HSBC, UBS and Standard Chartered.
Tokenized deposits are digital representations of traditional bank money issued by the participating banks. The ledger keeps a continuous record of what each bank owes the others, supporting transactions during nights and weekends. The source says this could allow businesses to pay overseas suppliers on weekends instead of waiting until Monday.
Bank Pilots Use Their Own Deposits
Some pilot transactions have already taken place. Standard Chartered and HSBC completed what the source describes as the first interbank transfer in August. First Abu Dhabi Bank and Citi moved U.S. dollars across the platform in September.
Those transfers use tokenized deposits rather than a bridge currency such as XRP. The source reports that neither SWIFT nor the pilot banks have included Ripple or the XRP Ledger in their plans. It therefore describes no role for XRP in this ledger’s current setup.
Chainlink announced on September 28 that it can help banks connect existing systems to the SWIFT ledger while retaining their own signing keys. Those keys authorize payments, and the source says keeping them gives banks greater control over transactions. IBM also introduced an adapter on September 24 that lets banks connect using standard payment messages. The report does not say that banks must hold LINK tokens to use Chainlink’s connection.
SWIFT’s Existing Network Remains in Place
SWIFT reports that 75% of transactions on its network are completed within 10 minutes, with many completed in seconds. The new ledger adds round-the-clock movement of tokenized deposits. SWIFT also connects more than 11,500 institutions, an existing network that a replacement would need to overcome.
The source notes that traders turned attention to Chainlink as its price rose 30.6% over the past month to about $15. It reported XRP at $1.50 on September 29, 2026, approximately 59% below its July 2025 peak of $3.67. Those figures describe market prices at the stated times; they do not establish how either asset will perform.
For XRP to become an alternative in this banking arrangement, banks would need to reconsider their participation in the SWIFT network. The source says current indications show the banks choosing to remain within that framework. It also reports Ripple’s business had reached a $50 billion valuation independently of the SWIFT network. A change would depend on SWIFT or a pilot bank recognizing the XRP Ledger as a connected network or accepting XRP as a bridge asset. For now, the pilots continue with tokenized bank deposits.
Related coverage: Chainlink’s banking conference role, financial institutions moving operations onto blockchain, and blockchain rails in payment networks.
The source report on SWIFT’s ledger says the pilots’ continued reliance on tokenized deposits would leave XRP outside the system unless participating institutions change course.