Ripple aims to compete with Swift in five years
Ripple CEO sees XRP capturing 14% of SWIFT volume in five years
Speaking at the XRPL Apex Conference in Singapore, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicted that XRP could capture up to 14% of SWIFT’s global transaction volume within five years, underscoring Ripple’s ambitions to transform cross-border payments using crypto liquidity.
While SWIFT remains dominant as a global messaging network for interbank transfers, Ripple is focused on displacing the liquidity layer, offering faster, cheaper, and decentralized solutions through XRP, reports Cryptopolitan.
“There are two parts to SWIFT today: messaging and liquidity… If you’re driving all the liquidity, it is good for XRP,” Garlinghouse explained.
Garlinghouse’s remarks reflect Ripple’s positioning as a competitor rather than a partner to SWIFT, despite occasional speculation of collaboration. Ripple is betting that the traditional financial system’s high friction and cost structures will accelerate institutional migration toward crypto-native settlement solutions—with XRP at the core.
XRPL prepares for DeFi boom with EVM sidechain launch in Q2
The conference also served as a launchpad for major updates to the XRP Ledger ecosystem, led by Ripple CTO David Schwartz. The most significant announcement was the upcoming launch of the XRPL Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain by the end of Q2 2025. Built in collaboration with Peersyst, the EVM sidechain already boasts over 80 projects on its testnet and will allow developers to deploy Ethereum-compatible smart contracts and DeFi protocols directly on XRPL.
This move is poised to shift XRPL’s current payment-centric activity toward a more diverse application layer, aligning it with the broader Web3 ecosystem. Ripple reports that XRPL currently hosts over 6 million active wallets and has processed 33 billion lifetime transactions—but DeFi activity remains nascent.
Tokenized treasuries, Dynamic NFTs, and ecosystem capital inflows
Further fueling the XRPL DeFi narrative, Ondo Finance has begun launching its OUSG tokenized U.S. Treasury product on XRPL. Users will be able to mint and redeem OUSG using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin, offering a new on-chain asset class to institutional and retail participants. Meanwhile, VivoPower has committed $100 million in XRP to the Flare ecosystem, aiming to generate yield within the broader Ripple-linked infrastructure. Another highlight from Apex includes support for Dynamic NFTs, expanding XRPL’s functionality beyond static tokenization.
As Ripple continues to aggressively develop infrastructure and partnerships, it is building a robust case for XRP to move from niche payments token to foundational layer for global liquidity and decentralized finance. If even a fraction of Garlinghouse’s SWIFT displacement vision materializes, XRP’s role in reshaping international finance could be far more consequential than its current market capitalization suggests.
Recently we wrote that as the crypto market continues its push toward mainstream financial integration, ETF Store President Nate Geraci predicts that a Grayscale fund offering XRP exposure could gain regulatory approval before a Solana ETF.
