Recently, many people may have noticed that the importance of the ISO 20022 standard has been rising rapidly. In particular, in the cryptocurrency industry, projects that comply with this international financial messaging standard have started drawing a lot of attention.

As for what ISO 20022 is, put simply, it’s like a unified language for financial institutions to exchange data. As a next-generation standard replacing the traditional SWIFT system, global adoption is scheduled by 2025. I’ve also heard that around 72% of major banks have already begun making preparations to support it.

The reason this is becoming important in the crypto industry is that it greatly improves interoperability with existing financial systems. In other words, cryptocurrencies that support ISO 20022 may, in the future, connect seamlessly with CBDCs and banking infrastructure. I think this will be a significant advantage in the long term.

So, when looking at projects that are attracting attention as ISO 20022-compliant cryptocurrencies, first and foremost is XRP. Ripple’s RippleNet enables interbank transfers to be completed in 3 to 5 seconds. As a bridge currency, XRP has very strong compatibility with existing financial rails.

Cardano is also an important player. This network, designed using an academic approach, has seen the rapid growth of its DeFi ecosystem since implementing smart contract functionality in 2021. With ISO 20022 compatibility, onboarding for traditional financial institutions will likely become even easier.

Quant Network’s Overledger protocol enables interoperability among multiple blockchains. By making it possible to develop multi-chain applications, cross-industry collaboration can advance to a new level.

Algorand adopts a proprietary proof-of-stake developed by MIT professor Silvio Micali. While achieving both scalability and security, it also ensures compatibility with existing financial systems through ISO 20022 support.

Stellar is an open-source project that pursues lower-cost, faster payments. With a non-profit orientation aimed at financial inclusion, the integration of the ISO 20022 standard enables seamless interoperability between next-generation networks and traditional financial rails.

Hedera is a fast, secure, enterprise-grade platform that uses hashgraph consensus. With a specification capable of processing more than 10,000 transactions per second, it’s likely that ISO 20022 support will also help build trust among institutional investors.

When you look at these six types of ISO 20022-compliant projects, you can see that cryptocurrencies are evolving from mere speculative assets into parts of financial infrastructure. Compliance with ISO 20022 should become an important milestone for integrating blockchain technology into mainstream finance.

As of 2026, this trend is accelerating even further. As the development of CentralBankDigitalCurrency progresses worldwide, ISO 20022-compliant cryptocurrencies will surely strengthen their positions. I think it’s important to keep an eye on the direction of these projects when considering what future financial systems will look like.