Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse predicts XRP Ledger (XRPL) will capture 14% of SWIFT’s global liquidity by 2030, driven by faster, cheaper cross-border payments.
Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, has made an audacious prediction regarding the future of cross-border payments. Garlinghouse’s projection during the XRP Ledger Apex 2025 conference in Singapore was that XRPL could acquire 14% of SWIFT’s global liquidity within the next five years. Additionally, he emphasized the importance of liquidity solutions in transforming global finance.
The CEO of Ripple anticipates that XRPL will surpass SWIFT
At the XRP APEX 2025 conference in Singapore, Brad Garlinghouse made a shocking prediction: the XRP Ledger has the potential to surpass SWIFT. He predicted that XRP Ledger would acquire a substantial portion of SWIFT within the next five years.
Garlinghouse emphasized that the key to dominating global finance is not messaging but regulating capital flows. Ripple’s vision of becoming a leader in a liquidity-driven revolution in cross-border payments is underscored by his statement. He proposed,
SWIFT has two parts: messaging and liquidity. Liquidity is where the power lies. If XRP drives the liquidity layer, it stands to gain significantly.
Ripple’s strategy, which promotes quicker and more efficient institutional value transfers, significantly capitalizes on crypto-based liquidity. It is designed to address the conventional banking system’s obstacles, with a particular emphasis on cross-border transactions.
Despite the initial supposition regarding the potential integration of Ripple with SWIFT, it was subsequently disregarded. CoinGape reported in April 2025 that prominent members of the XRP community denied the rumors.
SWIFT vs XRP Ledger
It is worth noting that Garlinghouse’s prediction that XRPL will hold 14% of the SWIFT market share by 2030 is quite ambitious. Nevertheless, given the growing criticism of the traditional payment systems’ sluggish transaction speed, there is still a possibility. The traditional systems may require 1-5 days to resolve transactions.
Conversely, transactions are settled by XRPL in mere seconds. Although the speed and cost advantages of XRPL are still substantial, the community may prefer the platform over SWIFT. XRP is an appealing alternative for institutions that require the rapid transfer of substantial sums of capital, as it boasts transaction settlement times that are exponentially faster than those of SWIFT.
Furthermore, the lower transaction fees of XRP compared to SWIFT may result in substantial cost reductions for financial institutions and banks. The XRPL has experienced a remarkable increase in payment volume due to these factors. As previously reported, the XRP payment volume has increased by 1,300% to $4.11 billion.
The community has avidly anticipated Ripple’s integration of SWIFT due to the growing concerns regarding high cost and slow speed. A Reddit user recently posted,
I have just made a transfer today and with SWIFT it costed me around 150 USD to send 30K USD and will take about 1-4 business days to recieve it. Will the new XRP Banking system take over soon or no? Is XRP the superior version of swift?
Nevertheless, SWIFT, which has been in operation for decades, continues to be the dominant actor in cross-border payments. SWIFT’s extensive adoption and established network present substantial obstacles to XRPL’s expansion. To secure a substantial portion of the global liquidity market, XRPL must exhibit its capacity to expand and satisfy the requirements of a swiftly expanding global economy.