Tokenised payments: Chainlink connects to Swift’s blockchain ledger
Chainlink announced it is working to enable financial institutions to connect their systems and key signing infrastructure to Swift’s blockchain ledger through the Chainlink platform.
This solution enables banks to easily access the Swift ledger and manage their usage of smart contracts on both their own ledgers for tokenized deposits and the Swift ledger. At the center of the solution is a self-signing model for financial institutions enabled through the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE). Institutions retain control of the keys used to authorize transactions, while CRE orchestrates workflows connecting financial institutions to Swift’s ledger. This enables banks to adopt 24/7 tokenized payment workflows while preserving their existing security governance, approval processes, and operating models.
Financial institutions will be able to use CRE to seamlessly connect to Swift’s ledger, a digital platform for orchestrating 24/7 cross-border payments using tokenized deposits. These deposits live on bank-owned ledgers and securely coordinate the movement of funds between participating institutions, including overnight and weekends.
Swift’s Ledger Enables Global Tokenized Payments
Swift’s ledger provides a secure orchestration layer for 24/7 cross-border payments using tokenized deposits that remain on banks’ balance sheets, thus preserving the benefits of commercial bank money. Bank-issued tokenized deposits remain on banks’ own ledgers, while Swift’s ledger securely coordinates the movement of funds between participating institutions, including overnight and on weekends.
This orchestration takes place before final settlement. Swift’s ledger does not change Swift’s role as a global financial messaging network, and final settlement continues through agreed mechanisms, such as real-time gross settlement systems. Banks can therefore extend payment availability without replacing their existing settlement arrangements.
“I’m very excited about the Swift ledger and what it will mean for tokenized deposits, as well as where global payments goes next. We are thrilled to be supporting the Swift ledger as more banks seek to join it and need a technology partner that can help them launch tokenized deposit capabilities and properly connect to the Swift ledger to gain the full benefit of its large network of users.” Sergey Nazarov, CEO, Chainlink Labs
Swift announced its blockchain-based shared ledger at Sibos 2025. Designed in collaboration with more than 40 financial institutions from around the world, it went from concept to activation within nine months. Seventeen first-mover financial institutions are putting the ledger to first use by piloting tokenized deposit transactions for various use cases. Swift connects more than 11,500 financial institutions and corporates across more than 200 markets.
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Chainlink is the industry-standard on-chain finance platform bringing the capital markets onchain and the market leader powering the majority of DeFi. The Chainlink stack provides the essential data, interoperability, compliance, and privacy standards needed to power advanced blockchain use cases for institutional tokenized assets, lending, payments, stablecoins, and more. Since inventing decentralized oracle networks, Chainlink has enabled tens of trillions in transaction value and now secures the vast majority of DeFi.
Many of the world’s largest financial services institutions have also adopted Chainlink’s standards and infrastructure. Chainlink leverages a novel fee model where offchain and onchain revenue from enterprise adoption is converted to LINK tokens and stored in a strategic Chainlink Reserve.
