Timeline
- 7.5
Swift CEO: At Least 19 Banks Will Use Its Blockchain Ledger by Year-End, Covering 5 Major Currencies
Swift CEO Javier Pérez-Tasso said at the opening of Sibos 2026 in Miami that Swift's blockchain-based ledger is now live and in use by some large global financial institutions. By the end of this year, at least 19 banks will use the ledger across 5 major currencies to support 24/7 payments using tokenized deposits. The announcement marks a shift from pilot planning to production use of blockchain-based settlement infrastructure at the interbank messaging network that most cross-border payments already rely on. It also places bank-issued tokenized deposits, rather than stablecoins, at the centre of efforts to make institutional payments always available. Pérez-Tasso gave the figure during his Sibos 2026 opening remarks, framing the ledger as supporting 24/7 payment availability through tokenized deposits. Swift's own press materials describe the blockchain ledger as an additional shared ledger that records and validates interbank payment commitments, rather than a replacement for its existing messaging layer.
- 7.0
IBM links 17 banks to the SWIFT ledger, but the cloud risk persists
IBM announced on Sept. 24 a beta connection between its Digital Asset Haven platform and SWIFT's shared ledger for tokenized deposits, using an ISO 20022 Messaging Adapter that lets participating institutions instruct ledger transactions through standard payment messages. IBM also announced a separate on-premises Haven beta that runs the platform and its key management inside a client's own IBM Z or LinuxONE data centers. According to IBM, the adapter lets banks use the ISO 20022 payment messages they already exchange to test transfers of bank-issued tokenized deposits, keeping familiar formats and compliance processes. The on-premises beta is positioned by IBM as giving regulated institutions direct control over the infrastructure used for custody and transaction management as they evaluate digital-asset services. Transfers on the ledger can move around the clock, but final settlement still relies on existing mechanisms such as real-time gross settlement systems, so a tokenized-deposit transfer can occur ahead of the final settlement step. IBM says the on-premises option uses the same architecture, APIs and workflows as Haven's SaaS and hybrid deployments, and that institutions already in SWIFT's program have tested tokenized deposits on the shared ledger with Haven.
- 7.5
IBM opens beta Swift ledger link for 24/7 tokenized deposits
IBM on Thursday announced two beta additions to its Digital Asset Haven platform: connectivity to Swift's blockchain-based ledger for tokenized deposits, and an option for banks to run the platform in their own data centers. A new messaging adapter lets institutions instruct tokenized deposit transactions using ISO 20022, the global financial messaging standard, instead of building blockchain-specific workflows. IBM said banks can use existing payment formats and compliance processes rather than building new blockchain-specific workflows. "The financial services industry is entering a new era where tokenized and traditional assets will need to move side by side," said Tom McPherson, general manager of IBM Z and LinuxONE. The on-premises option runs on IBM Z and LinuxONE infrastructure without relying on public cloud services, letting regulated institutions keep digital asset operations and key management inside their own data centers; final settlement remains on established banking systems. Financial institutions participating in Swift's program have tested tokenized deposits on the ledger using IBM's platform, IBM said.
- 7.5
UK’s largest banks complete world’s first interbank transactions using tokenized deposits
Seven of the U.K.’s largest banks — Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander — completed the world’s first customer transactions using tokenized British pound deposits on a shared platform built by distributed ledger technology provider Quant, the group announced on Thursday. The tests covered remortgage payments and a consumer purchase. The project tests whether regulated bank money can move in tokenized form between institutions and in retail payments, moving bank-issued digital cash beyond a single institution. Economic secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby said the live transactions “show how tokenized deposits can deliver practical, real-world benefits, contingent payments that give customers greater control over their money.” The participating banks operated under the Great British Tokenized Deposit initiative; unlike stablecoins, tokenized deposits remain a liability of the issuing bank and retain the protections attached to conventional deposits. According to the announcement, the group will next test the settlement of digital assets using tokenized customer money.
- 7.5
DBS and Citi settle cross-border dollar payment in minutes via SWIFT tokenized deposits
On Sept. 5, 2026, DBS and Citi's New York office completed the first weekend cross-border USD payment between Singapore and the United States using tokenized deposits on the SWIFT Digital Ledger, settling in minutes instead of up to two business days. It is the clearest demonstration yet of banks using blockchain-based records to move commercial bank money across borders on a 24/7 basis. This is a market-structure milestone: tokenized deposits are issued by regulated banks and represent a direct claim on deposits, letting Wall Street offer near-instant settlement without ceding customer balances to stablecoin issuers or non-bank payment firms. If it scales, it could compress the correspondent-banking fees and idle liquidity buffers that keep trillions of dollars parked in nostro accounts, reshaping who intermediates corporate cash. DBS's announcement describes the payment route, but the banks have not disclosed the transaction amount, total cost, recipient-side compatibility, or whether all customers can access the service, leaving its value unproven at scale. Instant settlement can also demand more cash at a given moment than netting-based systems that offset mutual obligations between banks.
- 7.5
Circle to buy Tazapay for $400M to close stablecoin fiat off-ramp gap
Circle agreed on Sept. 8 to acquire cross-border payments firm Tazapay for $400 million in Circle Class A stock, subject to closing adjustments for Tazapay's debt, transaction expenses and cash. Tazapay brings more than 60 banking and fintech partners and fiat payout rails across more than 100 markets, giving the USDC issuer the local licensing, banking access and currency conversion it lacked at the fiat edge of the payment flow. The deal targets the so-called 'last mile' of stablecoin payments: a token can settle onchain in seconds yet still fail as a payment if the recipient cannot receive usable local currency. If it closes, it would fold regulated fiat distribution directly into the largest regulated stablecoin issuer, strengthening USDC's position in cross-border B2B payments against competing stablecoin and card-network rails. Circle said Tazapay processed more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume as of July 31, 2026, and that roughly 60% of that volume involved stablecoins, though these are company-supplied figures and the definition of stablecoin share is collective rather than USDC-specific. The final share count depends on Circle's volume-weighted average closing price over the 20 trading days before completion, and Circle's own governance description of the Circle Payments Network holds that the operator does not take custody of customer funds or become a party to transactions — leaving CPN's neutrality an open question once it owns a payout operator.
- 7.5
Coinbase and Moov to Bring Stablecoin Rails to 1,000+ US Community Banks
Coinbase announced a partnership with payments platform Moov to deliver stablecoin payment acceptance, settlement and real-time funding to more than 1,000 US community banks and credit unions in Moov's customer base. The integration embeds Coinbase's Payments API and custodial wallets into Moov's existing payments platform, supporting consumer stablecoin payments, merchant settlement and payouts. It pushes stablecoin rails into mainstream community banking channels, giving smaller US institutions access to near-instant settlement and merchant payouts that were previously practical mainly for large banks and fintechs. It also reinforces a broader pattern in which both large banks and non-bank payments firms are moving to build stablecoin capability rather than wait on the sidelines. The offering is aimed at use cases including consumer stablecoin payments, merchant settlement and payouts, and it also gives businesses and merchants access to Coinbase custodial accounts. Community banks in the US are generally defined as institutions holding less than $10 billion in total assets, including state-chartered banks and savings and loan holding companies.
- 7.5
U.S. Bank tests USBDC stablecoin in live Stellar cross-border payment
U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest U.S. commercial bank, has successfully executed a live cross-border payment using its proprietary, U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin USBDC on the Stellar blockchain. The pilot moved funds between the bank's North American and European entities and tested minting, redemption, freezing, and clawback functions. This marks one of the first instances of a major U.S. bank using its own stablecoin on a public blockchain for a real cross-border payment, signaling deeper institutional adoption of digital assets. It also highlights how banks are integrating compliance controls such as freeze and clawback into public-chain stablecoins, a design that diverges from censorship-resistant ideals but may satisfy regulators. The transaction was part of U.S. Bank's internally developed Digital Asset Platform, which connects tokenized assets with its traditional banking infrastructure and integrates with risk, compliance, and operations systems. The bank had been testing stablecoin issuance on Stellar since at least November 2025, working with PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation; the latest announcement frames this as a launch of USBDC, though it remains a pilot rather than a large-scale rollout.
- 7.5
DBS and Citi Complete First Weekend Tokenized-Deposit USD Payment
DBS and Citi completed the first weekend cross-border USD settlement between Singapore and the U.S. using tokenized deposits over Swift's blockchain-based ledger. The transaction settled in minutes instead of the conventional one to two business days. This milestone shows major incumbent banks are moving tokenized deposits from pilots toward live use, potentially enabling 24/7 cross-border payments without leaving the regulated banking system. It signals growing institutional adoption of blockchain rails for real-world payment infrastructure. The transaction used tokenized deposits on Swift Digital Ledger, avoiding the constraints of traditional banking hours. Standard Chartered and HSBC completed the first tokenized cross-border transaction on Swift's ledger in August, and Swift has been preparing to pilot the service with 17 major banks including Citi and DBS.
- 7.5
Stablecoins Won't Scale Without Banks, New Analysis Argues
A new analysis argues that real stablecoin payments are bottlenecked by traditional banking rails, because enterprise flows start and end in fiat, leaving only the cross-border middle leg for on-chain settlement. It points to Stripe's Bridge acquisition, Citi's crypto custody launch, and Standard Chartered's Singapore stablecoin test as evidence that institutional players are integrating deeper into banking, not around it. This reframes stablecoins from would-be bank replacements into a middle-layer settlement tool whose enterprise adoption depends on banking relationships, compliance infrastructure, and local fiat corridors. Single-bank dependency is highlighted as an underappreciated operational risk that could undermine issuer liquidity and institutional trust. Citing FXC Intelligence, the article pegs the 2025 cross-border payments market at $208 trillion, while McKinsey and Artemis estimate genuine stablecoin payments at a roughly $390 billion annualized run rate in late 2025 — about 0.02% of global payment volume. It argues the gap between processing $50 million and $10 billion in payment volume is not technology but the breadth of banking, FX, and licensing corridors a provider can support.