Chainlink links banks to Swift's blockchain ledger for tokenized deposits
Tech & Launches ·
Chainlink said it is building infrastructure that lets financial institutions connect their systems and signing setups directly to Swift's blockchain ledger, aiming to streamline how banks manage tokenized deposits around the clock.
The integration, detailed in a press release, relies on the Chainlink Runtime Environment to coordinate workflows between a bank's own ledger and Swift's ledger while institutions keep custody of the private keys that authorize transactions. That self-signing arrangement means banks can plug into continuous, seven-day payment cycles without handing over control of transaction approval to an outside party, preserving their existing internal governance and risk sign-off procedures.
Swift's ledger itself functions as a coordination layer for cross-border payments built on tokenized deposits that stay recorded on each bank's own books, including during nights and weekends when traditional settlement windows are closed. Final settlement still runs through established channels such as real-time gross settlement systems, so the ledger extends when payments can move without altering how they are ultimately settled. Swift unveiled the shared ledger at Sibos 2025, developed alongside more than 40 financial institutions in roughly nine months, and seventeen institutions are currently trialing tokenized deposit transactions on it. Swift's network spans over 11,500 financial institutions and corporates in more than 200 markets.
Chainlink Labs CEO Sergey Nazarov framed the work as support for banks joining the Swift ledger who need a technical partner to stand up tokenized deposit capabilities and connect properly to that network. The announcement was also circulated on Chainlink's X account, and additional coverage of the development appears on leviathan.news's Chainlink tracker, with two distinct sources reporting on the plan.
What remains unclear is a timeline for when participating banks will move from piloting to production use of the Swift-Chainlink connection, and which of the seventeen first-mover institutions, if any, will be first to route live tokenized deposit transactions through the integration. Also unaddressed is how transaction volume or fees might scale as more of Swift's broader membership base opts to join the ledger.