Swift has unveiled a plan to enable the movement of digital assets and currencies on its global payment network. The initiative aims to integrate regulated digital currencies into Swift’s platform, building on past experiments. “We’re paving the way towards real-world solutions that will enable our members to access and transact with regulated digital assets and currencies on the Swift network,” Swift detailed.

Swift to Integrate Digital Assets and Currencies into Its Payment Network

Global payment network Swift announced on Wednesday a plan to facilitate the movement of digital assets and currencies on its platform. The initiative aims to allow members to access and transact with regulated digital currencies, building on prior experiments conducted with its community. This marks a significant step in integrating digital currencies into Swift’s existing infrastructure. The announcement states:

We’re paving the way towards real-world solutions that will enable our members to access and transact with regulated digital assets and currencies on the Swift network.

“Interest in digital assets and currencies continues to grow, with the last two years bringing greater clarity on the potential value of these developments to the industry,” Swift explained, citing projections by Standard Chartered and Synpulse estimating tokenized asset markets could reach $30 trillion by 2034.

Institutional investors, however, face challenges due to fragmented platforms and regulatory complexities. Swift warned of “digital islands,” where disparate systems lead to higher risks and costs. The firm noted: “On the digital currency side, while the latest Atlantic Council figures show that over 130 countries and currency unions are currently exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC), significant work is still needed to integrate these emerging currencies into the wider global economy.”

Swift’s blockchain experiments demonstrated the ability to transfer tokenized value across different networks. The firm described:

Our successful blockchain interoperability experiments showed how Swift’s infrastructure can facilitate the transfer of tokenised value across public and private blockchains.

“Our Phase 1 and Phase 2 CBDC sandbox projects – carried out with leading central and commercial banks from across Europe, Asia and North America – demonstrated how we can interlink CBDCs on different networks and interlink multiple asset and cash networks,” Swift further shared.

Moving forward, Swift will continue testing multi-ledger transactions, including Delivery-versus-Payment (DvP) and Payment-versus-Payment (PvP), with plans to integrate tokenized forms of money like CBDCs. “We’re excited for the future of digital assets and currencies on our network and will continue to collaborate with our community to drive progress in this area,” Swift concluded.

Source : Bitcoin News - Sep 15, 2024