Swift's blockchain pivot - reinvention or slow obsolescence?

For years, industry headlines have circled around the same narrative - blockchain will kill Swift. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, founded in the 1970s, has been the invisible layer behind trillions of dollars in global payments. Yet it's very design, slow, costly, and dependent on intermediaries, has made it an easy target for critics and innovators alike.

- Chris Maurice | CEO and Co-Founder | Yellow Card | [e-mail] |

So, the idea that Swift is finally exploring blockchain use cases shouldn't come as a shock. In fact, it was always inevitable.

The irony is that recreating Swift's model on-chain is almost laughably simple - slow transactions down by three days, charge $50 per transfer, and call it innovation. In that sense, blockchain doesn’t just challenge Swift - it exposes the inefficiency of its operating model. It’s no different than the car replacing the horse and buggy. Better systems make older ones obsolete.

If Swift wants to exist in 20 years, exploring blockchain rails is not a bold move. It’s a survival mechanism.

A lesson from the past

To understand Swift’s dilemma, it helps to look back. Imagine in 2005 if a major bank had announced - “We're not building an app. We're doubling down on in-person banking because people love branches.” By 2025, that bank would be a case study in irrelevance. The Blockbuster Video of banking. Consumer behavior shifted, and most of us can’t remember the last time we physically visited a branch.

This is where Swift stands today. Real-time payments and stablecoins are no longer experiments but part of the plumbing of finance. In this environment, clinging to legacy rails is a fast track to obsolescence.

Even traditional payment giants have come to the party. Visa, for example, has partnered with us to expand stablecoin-powered payments across emerging markets. For millions of people and businesses navigating dollar shortages and high transfer costs, this is not a distant vision of the future but a present-day solution.