Global banks collaborate on digital ledger to make instant, secure, and smarter international transactions.

Swift, the international payments network used by over 11,500 banks worldwide, has announced plans to launch its own blockchain in a bid to compete with the fast-growing stablecoin market. The move brings traditional finance closer to the efficiency and speed of crypto-driven payments.

The blockchain initiative will see Swift working with major banks including Bank of America, Citigroup, and NatWest, as well as blockchain firm ConsenSys, to develop a shared digital ledger. This platform will support tokenized products such as stablecoins, allowing Swift to record, sequence, and validate transactions automatically through smart contracts.

Stablecoins, pegged to the value of fiat currencies and dominated by issuers like Tether and Circle, have grown into a $300 billion market, enabling users to transfer funds instantly without relying on traditional intermediaries. Swift’s blockchain aims to offer banks the same speed and transparency while maintaining regulatory compliance and the security of a trusted payments network.

The project will also explore euro-denominated stablecoins, following a recent announcement by nine European banks planning their own token launch by 2026. Swift hopes that its blockchain will enable “instant, always-on cross-border transactions at unprecedented scale,” improving fees, predictability, and settlement times compared with legacy systems that can take up to five days per transfer.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of ConsenSys, will help guide the development of the prototype, which will be tested with participating banks before full-scale deployment. By combining the reliability of traditional banking with blockchain innovation, Swift is signaling a new era of faster, smarter, and more resilient cross-border payments.