For decades, we have lived and breathed the mechanics of global finance — from the structured predictability of correspondent banking to the intricate choreography of settlement and clearing systems for cross-border payments. Through it all, one institution has remained a constant: SWIFT. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication has been the quiet backbone of global payments — a trusted, if somewhat lumbering, infrastructure that moves an estimated $150 trillion a year across borders.
So when I saw the headline — “SWIFT partners with Consensys and over 30 banks to build a real-time crypto payments system” — I had to read it twice.
Let that sink in: SWIFT, the ultimate bastion of TradFi conservatism, is now building its next-generation payments system on Ethereum’s layer 2 blockchain, Linea, developed by Consensys.
To many in the banking world, this feels like heresy. For years, we’ve dismissed crypto as speculative noise — the playground of retail traders, ideologues, and fintech dreamers. We told ourselves that it lacked scalability, regulatory clarity, and institutional-grade infrastructure. And, for a long time, we were right.
But the tide is turning faster than most of us in finance are prepared to admit.
SWIFT’s move isn’t experimental — it’s existential.
By building on Linea, SWIFT is acknowledging what we’ve all quietly known: our legacy rails can’t meet the demands of a 24/7, real-time economy. The current cross-border payments system is slow, expensive, and opaque. Blockchain technology — once dismissed as inefficient and insecure — now offers cheaper, faster, and more transparent settlement.
Linea, leveraging zero-knowledge rollup technology (zkEVM), can process around 150 transactions per second at one-fifteenth the cost of Ethereum mainnet. That’s not a lab demo; that’s industrial-grade efficiency.
When SWIFT’s CEO Javier Pérez-Tasso presented the news to the banking sector, he didn’t even mention Linea by name at first. According to Consensys co-founder Joe Lubin, SWIFT wanted to “soft roll out” the news — and yet, the reception among the banks was overwhelmingly positive.
The participants in this pilot — Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and TD Bank, to name a few — aren’t known for chasing fads. Their involvement signals something deeper: the start of a convergence between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi).
A quiet admission from the establishment.
For years, blockchain’s critics within finance — and I count myself among them — have viewed the technology through the lens of speculation and regulatory risk. But when SWIFT integrates a blockchain layer into its core infrastructure, the debate changes. This isn’t about tokens or trading anymore; it’s about infrastructure modernization.
We’re witnessing the beginning of a system that could reconcile fiat and digital assets under a single interoperable standard. A system that runs around the clock, settles instantly, and drastically cuts the cost of compliance and reconciliation.
And perhaps most importantly — a system that challenges the notion that innovation must come from outside traditional finance.
The irony isn’t lost on me.
Ripple spent nearly a decade trying to convince banks to move cross-border payments to blockchain. Now, SWIFT — Ripple’s symbolic opposite — may ultimately deliver on that vision, and at scale. If this experiment succeeds, Linea could quietly become the new backbone of global settlement.
Where this leaves us.
For finance professionals, it’s time to drop the dismissive tone and start engaging with what’s actually happening. Blockchain isn’t coming for the banks anymore — it’s coming through them.
If SWIFT’s $150 trillion network migrates even partially onto a blockchain layer, it won’t just validate the technology. It will redefine the very architecture of the global financial system.
Skepticism has served us well. But so has adaptation.
And today, adaptation means accepting that blockchain — once a curiosity on the fringes of finance — is quietly becoming the infrastructure beneath it.
Steve Gregory is a lawyer in the United States who specializes in licensing for cryptocurrency companies and products. Steve began his career as an attorney in 2015 but made the switch to working in cryptocurrency full time shortly after joining the original team at Gemini Trust Company, an early cryptocurrency exchange based in New York City. Steve then joined CEX.io and was able to launch their regulated US-based cryptocurrency. Steve then went on to become the CEO at currency.com when he ran for four years and was able to lead currency.com to being fully acquired in 2025.
