Consensys shared that it is supporting Swift with early-stage prototyping as the global financial infrastructure adds a blockchain-based digital ledger to its technology stack.
The Language of Money: ISO 20022
On November 22, 2025, SWIFT officially migrated all cross-border payment messages to the ISO 20022 standard ending decades of reliance on the legacy MT format. More than just a technical upgrade, ISO 20022 introduces rich, structured, and standardized payment data, designed to improve transparency, compliance, automation, and user experience across financial systems globally.
As of 22 November 2025, ISO 20022 is now the standard for cross-border payment instructions - a major milestone delivered through years of collaboration across the global financial community. Adoption is already strong: yesterday, 97% of payment instructions were sent in ISO… pic.twitter.com/AHfqw9kezp
— Swift (@swiftcommunity) November 25, 2025
This move was backed by the G20 and years of collaboration among central banks, financial institutions, and infrastructure providers.
But Data Alone Doesn’t Move Money
ISO 20022 standardizes how payment instructions are communicated but it does not actually process the money. That requires a settlement infrastructure capable of executing these instructions. And that’s where Ethereum comes into the picture. But Ethereum Mainnet has limitations for institutions: it is too slow, too public and too expensive for the volumes traditional finance deals with daily.
Enter Linea: Ethereum’s Layer-2 Gets the Institutional Greenlight
SWIFT’s latest pilot for cross-border settlements doesn’t just ride on ISO 20022, it goes a step further by settling transactions using Linea, an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain developed by Consensys. Rather than experimenting with crypto in isolation, SWIFT is directly integrating with Ethereum’s ecosystem. In its Linea pilot, over 30 of the world’s biggest banks—including JPMorgan, HSBC and BNP Paribas will test blockchain-based settlements with Ethereum L2 as the infrastructure layer.
Why Linea Was Chosen
Linea combines the scalability of Layer-2 networks with the privacy and security features demanded by institutions:
- zkEVM technology: Linea uses zero-knowledge rollups, allowing private transaction validation without revealing sensitive data.
- Ethereum compatibility: Built with the same tooling as Ethereum, it makes it easy for banks already experimenting with EVM-based assets to participate.
- Trusted builder: Linea is developed by Consensys, the same team behind MetaMask and other institutional-grade tools.
Instead of holding volatile assets like XRP, banks can now tokenize fiat currencies and settle payments over Linea using gas-efficient transactions. This neutral and programmable architecture is what sets Ethereum L2s apart from earlier crypto experiments.
Why It Matters for Ethereum and Web3
The world’s most-used payment network is now relying on Ethereum-native technology to test the future of money movement. And it aligns perfectly with Ethereum’s thesis: that an open, composable internet of value can support institutions and retail users alike. More importantly, it shows that Ethereum’s modular architecture- Mainnet for security, Layer-2s for scale, is resonating at the highest levels of finance.
Though Ripple and Stellar have long marketed their ISO 20022 compatibility, neither was chosen for this pilot. While both networks align technically with ISO messaging, they rely on native assets (XRP and XLM) for value transfer: an approach that introduces price volatility and balance sheet risk for banks.
SWIFT and its members preferred Linea’s neutrality: the ability to issue and settle stablecoins or tokenized deposits without relying on any intermediary crypto asset.
Conclusion: Ethereum Is Becoming the Backend of Global Finance
With ISO 20022 as the new global language of payments and Ethereum’s Linea as the pilot’s execution layer, traditional finance is moving closer to Web3 than ever before.
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