Banks to join SWIFT digital asset trials in 2025

Banks in North America, Europe and Asia are preparing to participate in new trials involving digital assets by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

SWIFT announced on Oct. 3 that it will begin a digital asset trial on its network in 2025. The trial will focus on conducting experiments with transactions involving multiple digital currencies and assets.

The trials aim to explore how the banking network can provide financial institutions with unified access to “multiple digital asset classes and currencies.”

“Initial use cases will focus on payments, foreign exchange, securities and trade to enable multi-ledger delivery-versus-payment and payment-versus-payment transactions,” the announcement noted.

SWIFT’s plan to unify the fragmented digital asset landscape

In the announcement, SWIFT highlighted the rapid growth of unconnected platforms and technologies in the digital asset economy, which led to an “increasingly fragmented landscape.”

According to SWIFT, such fragmentation poses significant impediments to global adoption as it creates a “complex web of ‘digital islands.’”

SWIFT stated:

“SWIFT’s trials will leverage its unique position […] to interlink these disparate networks with each other as well as with existing fiat currencies, enabling its global community to seamlessly transact using digital assets and currencies alongside traditional forms of value.”

Cointelegraph approached SWIFT for comment regarding what digital assets are likely to be part of its blockchain trials in 2024 but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.