What’s interesting here is the intersection of digital assets, currencies, CBDCs, and tracking. They certainly seem to be positioning themselves to be able to make any kind of financial transactions around the world. Of course, some digital assets like Bitcoin already do a great job of transacting around the world with lower fees, as SWIFT is expensive which I believe we used when closing on our house through our bank. And this seems to be a much more encompassing system than FedNow worth being aware of. Also, the feds run a huge operation that tracks Bitcoin transactions, so more ways of putting identities with particular transactions will allow them to track subsequent transactions, but if you don’t reuse addresses along with some other creative things, you can maintain privacy on the Bitcoin blockchain with new privacy features being worked on. There are pooling services, but they’ve been arresting the people running them for money laundering if they were stupid enough to be in a western nation. And you can always run funds through exchanges to the myriad of cryptocurrencies and back to Bitcoin as well. Or just bounce them around different wallets…
https://cointelegraph.com/news/swift-bank-digital-asset-transaction-trial-2025
SWIFT said it is uniquely positioned to interlink the fragmented digital asset landscape with its forthcoming digital currency trials in 2025.
Banks in North America, Europe and Asia are preparing to participate in trials involving digital assets by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
SWIFT announced on Oct. 3 that it will begin digital asset trials on its network in 2025. The trials will involve experiments with transactions that include 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 said.
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 that has led to an “increasingly fragmented landscape.”
According to SWIFT, such fragmentation poses significant impediments to global adoption because 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.”
SWIFT wants its network to cover “all kinds of assets”
SWIFT chief innovation officer Tom Zschach noted that the banking organization is focused on developing real-world mainstream applications to bridge emerging and “established forms of value.”
He also emphasized SWIFT’s intention to seamlessly make and track transactions of “all kinds of assets,” adding:
“For digital assets and currencies to succeed on a global scale, it’s critical that they can seamlessly coexist with traditional forms of money.”
SWIFT declined to comment to Cointelegraph on the digital assets likely to be part of its blockchain trials in 2025 and when it expects to launch those trials.
SWIFT has been actively experimenting with blockchain, tokenization and CBDCs
The upcoming digital currency trials on SWIFT are yet another blockchain-related development by the global banking network, founded in the 1970s.
On Sept. 16, SWIFT joined the Bank for International Settlements and a group of central banks in the tokenization Project Agorá. This project aims to identify how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on a single platform.
In March 2024, SWIFT proposed creating a blockchain-based “state machine,” describing it as a “dynamic model that reflects the current state of transactions and balances across institutions.” The tool could be built on the already-used ISO-20022 messaging technology and could potentially work on a blockchain or a centralized platform like SWIFT’s Transaction Manager, the bank messaging network noted.
Last year, SWIFT issued a report on potential methods of connecting diverse blockchains to solve the issue of cross-chain interoperability.