Ripple Challenges SWIFT: Ambition to Capture 14% of Global Transactions, XRP Preparing to "Take Off"?

Ripple's ambition in the global payment sector is becoming increasingly clear and direct, as CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly stated at APEX 2025 that the company is aiming to take over SWIFT's customer base. This commentary follows Ripple's long term strategy to transform the global banking infrastructure from legacy systems to the blockchain-based XRP Ledger. Meanwhile, central banks are paying more attention to this, with recent reports indicating that Ripple's network capabilities are currently being studied alongside SWIFT's systems in trials. Garlinghouse Targets SWIFT's Market Share Speaking at the APEX summit, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that Ripple's goal is not only to compete with SWIFT but also to replace SWIFT's role in global money transfers. According to Garlinghouse, although SWIFT is very dominant in terms of communication, the most important thing is the liquidity that banks can provide. "I care less about the message and focus more on liquidity," he said. Ripple is targeting this deeper infrastructure among banks, which is the real movement of value. Interestingly, Garlinghouse stated that Ripple plans to capture up to 14% of the current cross-border transaction volume of SWIFT within 5 years. This is a desirable figure, especially considering the current scale of SWIFT's operations. Recent estimates show that SWIFT is currently processing over 45 million financial messages and handling around 5 trillion dollars in remittance transactions daily. Even 14% of that market share would represent hundreds of billions of dollars in value flowing through Ripple's ecosystem, which would create significant demand for XRP. Central Banks Are Exploiting Garlinghouse's comments came at a time when the momentum of institutions seems to be shifting in favor of Ripple. Interestingly, Ripple's global development is not only limited to partnerships in the private sector. A cryptocurrency enthusiast on social media platform X with the nickname Finance Bull has recently drawn attention to the growing interest of central banks in blockchain-based payment infrastructure. It is no surprise that Ripple's technology is the main focus of this increasing interest. Ripple's xCurrent solution, built on the Interledger Protocol (ILP), has recently been studied alongside SWIFT's GPI system as part of the Stella Project. The Stella Project is a collaborative research initiative between the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan.

Basically, this means that central banks are starting to consider Ripple's technology, which says a lot about the prospects of this ecosystem in the coming years. The fact that two of the most influential central banks in the world have looked at Ripple's infrastructure alongside SWIFT is a signal that the utility of XRP is currently being assessed as a focal point in discussions about global monetary policy. These developments are very much in line with the long-held belief of many passionate XRP supporters. There have been continuous predictions from the most confident members of the community that the price of XRP will undoubtedly surpass the current all-time high of $3.40. Some technical analyses have predicted that the price of XRP will reach double digits. Other predictions suggest that the price of XRP could go up to $1,000.