Ripple finally ended the legal fight against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, bringing legal clarity to its underlying coin, XRP (XRP). Now observers ask if the XRP can finally focus on providing a viable alternative to Swift.
Society for global interbank financial telecommunication (SWIFT) has been the backbone of international currency transfers since it was established in 1973. However, for years, critics have said the system has been obsolete.
Many in the blockchain industry, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, argue that blockchain technology provides higher throughput and better transparency, making it a great alternative to Swift.
Now that Ripple’s legal battles are calm, can it provide a reasonable alternative to Swift?
How is the ripple stack up to Swift?
Over 50 years ago, Swift replaced Telex as a coding system that supports worldwide financial transactions. The system does not send money itself but instead provides standard codes and a safe messaging platform where banks can coordinate money transfers.
A customer will make a money transfer request. Their bank will then send the recipient’s bank request, and that request may go through many other network banks. Actual negotiation occurs through established banking relationships and system -clearing systems.
Swift processes of over 53 million messages day -day throughout 40,000 payment routes, 220 countries and over 11,500 institutions.
But there are some basic complaints with Swift. Transactions can take several days and rife with fees. Moreover, the complex network of bank partners means it is more difficult to ensure visibility.
There are also delays and failures. Rinse Says In January 2024 that one of the 10 transactions failed, while one in 20 repaired the latter.
The network has undergone a number of upgrades since it started, including.
ISO 20022, which aims to provide clearer payment data and more transparency by November 25, 2025. However, critics claim that the “legacy” tech has been outdated in the decade of XML technology.
Swift may have the advantage of ubiquity and clear institutional adoption, but the ripple offers a clear advantage over technological terms, with faster transaction speeds and negotiations, as well as lower costs.
In 2018, just a few years before Ripple’s legal battle begins with the SEC, Garlinghouse said Bloomberg, “What we do and implement on a daily basis is, in fact, getting fast” as banks and remittance companies signed to use the XRP ledger.
So, by signing institutional partners and the price of XRP in a tear last year, what stops Ripple’s ledger from challenging Swift?
So, why didn’t Ripple get SWIFT?
Cassie Craddock, Managing Director for the UK and Europe at Ripple, told Cointelegraph, “We don’t see Blockchain as an opportunity to replace legacy metals, rather a way of adding and modernizing existing financial infrastructure, creating opportunities for greater and interpererity.”
However, “Schoving the level of the traditional provider requires dealing with two main obstacles: usability and regulation.”
Regarding the regulation, Ripple has, until recently, part of a particular court case with a high profile court.
In December 2020, SEC under chairman Jay Clayton accused the Ripple Labs for failing to register XRP tokens as security under US law. The commission said the company and its executives raised capital through unregistered security sales. The next was an expensive, long battle in court.
In 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP’s programmatic sales does not require security registrationBut the sale of XPR to institutional investors. The court did not issue the final $ 125-million civil penalty to be fired until August 2024.
Related: Ripple compared to the SEC: How the lawsuit strengthened the XRP narrative
By October, Ripple and the SEC filed their own appeals, but following the US President Donald Trump’s election and the Realignment of the SEC priorities for Crypto, both parties finally agreed to overthrow their case in early August 2025.
The case may impede XRP adoption in the US, but during the case, it has signed cooperation with institutions with many other constituents around the world. Moreover, the case Provides XRP specifically unique legal clarity – Something that can boast some cryptocurrencies.
However, legal clarity may not be enough for the ripple to reach the largest payment network in the world, as the banks themselves should be convinced to change how they work.
Pseudonymous software engineer and blockchain proponent vincent van code Says Platforms that use the fast “billion -billion -day -day process, but they are strict, costly, and deeply silent. A major replacement can take 5-7 years and hundreds of millions of dollars -a massive operational risk.”
They say banks do not change their systems because “every bank is ‘speaking fast,’ making it the safest, cheapest choice. Even initiatives like the Swift GPI are just patches on the nearly 50 -year -old foundation.”
The van code concluded that the ripple had to argue with fragile cores of legacy and “uneven” global regulation and restraint with banks at risk-all while counting perceptions about its underlying liquidity of the token.
“Swift’s ubiquity is its moat, and breaking the network impact will last time.”
Craddock said “institutions require tools that feel familiar,” and new regulations, especially the Genius Act, are a “step towards clear policies that provide confidence in institutions to adopt a blockchain in a following way.”
“Stablecoins like the Ripple USD help the bridge of this space – they are simple to understand, they are —Peg 1: 1 in the US dollar and act like cash in digital form. That’s familiar to why we see traditional financial players that are increasingly comfortable using crypto and blockchain tech today.”
Private payments get land
It is unclear whether the ripple may last in the future Swift, to overcome the hidden business skills of the banking sector and less enthusiastic regulators.
However, crypto is climbing the US, where lawmakers are making carveouts for digital possessions to fulfill critical duties in the traditional financial system. Congress has clearly expressed its preference for the proliferation of private stablecoins in a digital dollar or central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Congress did not clearly ban a CBDC, but it has create a law where only the legislature can create oneFederal reserve or commercial beings are excluded. At the same time, it passed the Genius Act, which provides clear policies for stablecoin providers.
In March, after the SEC dropped its investigation into Ripple, Garlinghouse said Fox News said “the market opportunity is huge” in the US and said there is an opportunity to modernize payment systems from Swift.
“The effect of Trump is deep (…) you can see that by adopting these technologies (blockchain).”
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