SWIFT makes a major announcement: this year, a blockchain ledger will go live in production, connecting a global network of 11,500 banks via the EVM architecture

SWIFT announced that it has completed the design phase of its blockchain shared ledger and has officially moved into MVP implementation. The plan is to go live with real transactions this year. The ledger uses an EVM-compatible architecture, built on Hyperledger Besu, enabling banks to achieve 24/7 cross-border settlement through tokenized deposits.
(Background context: Swift’s blockchain shared ledger has entered the MVP phase, teaming up with banks around the world to solve the issue of digitized-asset fragmentation)
(Background addition: North American banking giant BMO teamed up with CME and Google Cloud to launch a “tokenized cash” platform, targeting 24/7 real-time settlement)

Table of contents

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• EVM architecture + tokenized deposits—see the technical layer in one go
• The pain points of existing cross-border payments—how does the ledger address them?
• Clear timeline: MVP goes live this year, with the retail framework following by end of June

SWIFT’s website officially announced yesterday (30): the blockchain shared ledger has completed its design phase, and MVP implementation is now fully under way. This year, it will be rolled out with real transactions. As a critical infrastructure connecting banks and financial institutions worldwide, the rules of the cross-border payments game are being rewritten by SWIFT itself.

EVM architecture + tokenized deposits—see the technical layer in one go

The MVP ledger is built on an open-source foundation and adopts an architecture compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), with Hyperledger Besu selected as the core.

The ledger introduces a “shared digital orchestration layer,” responsible for recording and verifying payment commitments between banks. The underlying value representation uses tokenized deposits, while remaining compatible with multiple settlement options, including RTGS (real-time gross settlement) systems, correspondent banking relationships, or mechanisms agreed upon separately between participating institutions.

The key point is that banks do not need to give up control. Each bank runs its own node environment, and controls the keys, assets, funds, and settlement entirely on its own. SWIFT’s role is to coordinate transaction workflows, verify fund commitments, and orchestrate cross-bank processes—not to take over banks’ core systems.

At present, SWIFT connects more than 11,500 institutions across over 200 countries and regions, with active payment routing exceeding 40,000 routes. This important network will become the underlying soil for the new ledger to take root.

The pain points of existing cross-border payments—how does the ledger address them?

Traditional cross-border payments have long faced three major pain points: delayed settlement times, unclear liquidity conditions, and cumbersome reconciliation processes. Banks often need to pass funds among multiple intermediary banks, and each step can introduce both timing gaps and information mismatches.

The SWIFT blockchain ledger directly targets these issues. After the ledger goes live, participating banks can gain the following core benefits: faster payment execution, real-time liquidity visualization, substantially reduced reconciliation workload, and interoperability across institutions.

Advanced use cases are also included in the plan: programmable corporate payment flows, payment-versus-payment (PvP) synchronized settlement for foreign-exchange transactions, and cash settlement for securities trades.

“Our goal is to provide the best cross-border payment experience, regardless of what form the value exists in,” said Jonathan Ehrenfeld, who is responsible for the SWIFT ledger strategy.

“By adding a blockchain ledger to our infrastructure, we can seamlessly and securely bring the advantages of digital finance into the ecosystem—while not compromising on the trust and resilience that global finance requires at scale.”

Clear timeline: MVP goes live this year, with the retail framework following by end of June

SWIFT is adopting a dual-track parallel strategy to advance its digital finance transformation.

The first track is the ledger MVP: participating banks will kick off real transactions this year to enable cross-institution 24/7 real-time payments, and during the transaction rollout process they will also perform synchronized reviews of obligation states.

The second track is the retail trading framework: more than 25 banks will import SWIFT’s new retail trading framework by the end of June this year, strengthening fee transparency, providing fee certainty, and achieving real-time settlement where conditions allow.

Since SWIFT published its ledger plan in September 2025, many banks around the world have already formed working groups, jointly participating in the design phase and exploring how a shared cross-bank ledger can help banks coordinate cross-border payments more effectively amid industry trends toward always-on service. Now that the design is completed and construction has started, SWIFT’s blockchain ledger has moved from blueprint to reality.