From Telegram commands to mathematical verification: the ultimate showdown of the global payment system

Swift’s Blockchain Revolution

As capital flows at the speed of light become the norm, the financial system of the telegram instruction era appears sluggish. At this year’s Sibos 2025 Frankfurt Conference, Swift announced a transformative decision: to embed a blockchain-based shared ledger into its infrastructure to connect global financial institutions for value exchange.

This is not just a simple technological upgrade but a reshaping of the entire clearing system.

Swift’s decision-makers have chosen Ethereum Layer 2 network Linea as the technical foundation. According to Consensys CEO Joe Lubin revealed at the Token2049 conference in Singapore, the zk-EVM aggregation technology used by Linea can achieve instant mathematical verification while ensuring security. What does this mean for Swift, which handles approximately 150 trillion USD in transactions annually and involves over 11,000 financial institutions across more than 200 countries?

It means that the tens of trillions of dollars in reserves originally held in correspondent accounts to hedge against clearing delays can be released back into the real economy. It means 24/7 real-time reconciliation becomes possible. It means friction costs in the financial system can be reduced to historic lows.

Currently, more than 30 top global financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citibank, are prepared to participate in this pilot.

Why Linea and not other L2s?

Among the many Ethereum Layer 2 options, Swift’s technical choice reflects the real needs of financial clearing.

Coinbase has chosen the Base chain based on OP Stack, while Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain this year based on Arbitrum. These choices each have their logic but all fall short of fully meeting the demanding requirements of financial transactions.

OP and Arbitrum use optimistic aggregation mechanisms, assuming transactions are valid by default and only triggering verification when challenged. This means asset withdrawals require multi-day challenge periods—an unacceptable delay for financial clearing.

Linea’s zk-EVM takes the opposite approach: through zero-knowledge proofs, each transaction can be verified instantly with mathematical certainty. While protecting transaction privacy, it also provides an auditable proof chain for financial compliance. For institutions handling massive value settlements, this difference is not just a technical detail but a watershed moment.

Ripple’s Decade-Long Journey

To understand the significance of Swift’s decision, we need to revisit a forgotten pioneer.

In 2012, Ripple, with its XRP Ledger, attempted to challenge the correspondent banking system. It connected over 300 financial institutions worldwide and demonstrated a theory: XRP as a bridge currency could reduce cross-border clearing from several days to 3-5 seconds.

This innovation shone particularly brightly in Southeast Asia. Japan’s SBI Remit used XRP to build real-time remittance networks in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia, making FX conversions transparent and low-cost. Southeast Asian payment platform Tranglo significantly improved the efficiency of peso and Thai baht settlements through Ripple ODL. Santander Bank’s One Pay FX app provided customers with true real-time transfer transparency. In B2B, American Express and PNC Bank optimized cross-border trade settlement experiences.

Ripple even collaborated with over 20 countries, including Palau, Montenegro, and Bhutan, to develop CBDC infrastructure.

However, the SEC lawsuit in 2020 changed everything. Although the court ruled in 2023 that XRP itself is not a security, the five-year legal tug-of-war only fully concluded in August 2025, by which time the market window had closed. Today, Ripple has connected over 40 payment markets with a total transaction volume of about 30 billion USD, but this figure is insignificant compared to Swift’s annual scale of 150 trillion USD.

The Fundamental Difference Between Two Paths

Ripple and Swift represent two entirely different evolutionary directions.

Ripple’s strategy is to build outside the old system. It relies on XRP as an intermediary asset, requiring financial institutions to bear the volatility risk of a single asset. While this model works well in small-scale markets, it becomes fragile when applied to the global systemic level.

Swift’s strategy is to transform the existing system. Its blockchain ledger is designed to be “asset-neutral”—supporting fiat currencies, stablecoins, CBDCs, and various tokenized assets. Thousands of banks within Swift’s coverage can upgrade their existing infrastructure without learning new systems, gaining instant settlement capabilities. They do not need to bear any single asset risk but can enjoy the efficiency benefits brought by blockchain.

This combination of “existing advantage + technological compliance” is forming an unstoppable force.

The Leap of Value Transfer Protocols

From a deeper perspective, this confrontation reflects an upgrade cycle of the entire financial infrastructure.

In the telegram instruction era, capital flows were hampered by manual reconciliation, time zone delays, and layered charges by correspondent banks. Financial institutions were forced to hold massive reserves in Nostro/Vostro accounts to hedge clearing risks. This not only wasted capital efficiency but also limited the liquidity potential of the global economy.

The advent of blockchain has changed the game. But the key is not blockchain itself, but who can effectively integrate it into the existing financial order.

Swift’s decision signifies that the global financial system is officially entering the “mathematical verification era.” Trust mechanisms that once relied on manual, paper-based records and delayed reconciliation will be replaced by code and cryptography. 24/7 real-time shared ledgers will eliminate fragmentation between different tokenized networks and break down the long-standing barriers between TradFi and DeFi.

In this new era, the financial system will become more transparent, cost-effective, and highly interoperable. The speed of capital flow can truly match the rhythm of the modern economy. This has profound implications for global economic efficiency.

And Ripple, once the trailblazer, now faces the ultimate challenge from within the system for reform.