Swift to Launch Live Trials for Digital Asset Transactions in 2025

In a major development, Swift is set to begin live trials of digital asset and currency transactions in 2025. This initiative will engage banks across North America, Europe, and Asia, marking a shift from experimentation to real-world applications. Leveraging its extensive network, Swift aims to bridge the gap between traditional and digital assets by ensuring seamless transactions across different platforms.

Bridging Digital and Traditional Assets

Swift announced on October 3 that the trials will focus on piloting settlements of digital assets and currencies through the company’s infrastructure. This advanced version will allow global financial institutions to use their existing Swift connections to transact both digital and traditional assets across various networks. According to Tom Zschach, Swift’s Chief Innovation Officer, the goal is to demonstrate a secure global network capable of handling both digital and fiat currency transactions.

Zschach emphasized, “For digital assets and currencies to succeed on a global scale, it’s critical that they can seamlessly coexist with traditional forms of money.” The trials will build on prior successful blockchain experiments, which showcased Swift’s ability to connect public and private blockchains and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

One of the primary goals of the trials is to address the issue of disconnected digital platforms, or “digital islands,” that hinder widespread adoption of digital assets. With 134 countries exploring CBDCs and tokenized assets predicted to reach $30 trillion by 2034, global interconnectivity is crucial. Swift’s infrastructure is expected to enable smooth cross-border transactions between digital and fiat currencies, further advancing the adoption of digital assets worldwide.

Zschach highlighted the significance of the trials, stating, “This move will mark an important milestone as we progress towards achieving our ultimate vision of giving financial institutions a single point of access to multiple digital asset classes and currencies.”