Consensys CEO Joe Lubin confirmed that SWIFT will build its blockchain payment settlement platform on Ethereum layer-2 Linea. The announcement came during a fireside chat at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore.
SWIFT CEO Javier Pérez‑Tasso initially announced the project to the banking sector without naming the specific blockchain. Lubin explained SWIFT needed to soft roll out the news, which received positive sentiment from financial institutions.
The infrastructure project involves over 30 traditional finance institutions including Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Toronto‑Dominion Bank. These firms will participate in trials of SWIFT's new blockchain payments rail on Linea.
Developed by Consensys, Linea leverages zk‑EVM rollup technology to process around 1.5 transactions per second. Transaction fees on the network cost approximately one‑fifteenth of Ethereum mainnet fees.
Linea holds $2.27 billion in total value locked, ranking fourth among Ethereum layer‑2 networks. Only Arbitrum One, Base Chain, and OP Mainnet have higher TVL, according to available data.
SWIFT handles approximately $150 trillion in global payments through traditional banking rails annually. The move to blockchain enables near‑instant, 24/7 settlement without intermediaries while reducing costs, errors, and delays.
The platform could compete directly with Ripple's XRP Ledger, one of the few prominent blockchain‑based payment systems designed for banks. SWIFT's entry represents a significant validation of blockchain technology for institutional finance.
Lubin described Linea's broader potential beyond payments as a platform for user‑generated content and civilization. The CEO explained that leveraging Ethereum's trustless settlement layer allows communities to build infrastructure, rules, and applications from the ground up.