Ethereum Landed Its Biggest Partner Yet — SWIFT, Confirms Joe Lubin
Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys chief Joseph Lubin appeared on Bloomberg Crypto on October 7 and confirmed that ConsenSys is constructing the prototype for SWIFT’s new blockchain-based shared ledger—an initiative that, in accordance with SWIFT’s personal announcement final week at Sibos in Frankfurt, will bolt a permissioned, always-on ledger into the worldwide messaging cooperative’s infrastructure and natively combine ISO 20022 monetary messaging.
SWIFT Builds On Ethereum
Lubin said the primary construct “will most undoubtedly implement messaging, monetary messaging utilizing ISO 20022,” including that whereas SWIFT itself is “cautious to remain of their lane and deal with the messaging half,” some collaborating banks are “all for doubtlessly diving down into settlement layers.”
“I’ve to watch out about what I say. It is a challenge that we’re constructing out. There will probably be technologists on their facet and much on our facet. And I’m glad that you just known as it a prototype, as a result of that’s what it’s,” the ConsenSys founder added.
He declined to offer a deployment timeline. “I do have an concept of what kind of timeline, and I can’t say an excessive amount of about it. We’re defining what we imagine would be the finish state, and we’re backing that out, so I don’t know if SWIFT will probably be comfy releasing the timeline at this level,” Lubin mentioned.
SWIFT’s transfer—framed explicitly as a shared ledger that data, sequences and validates transactions—was unveiled on September 29, with the cooperative stressing that the challenge goals to ship immediate, 24/7 cross-border transactions at international scale and to speed up “the transition to digital finance” whereas remaining asset-agnostic and interoperable with private and non-private networks. The formal supplies didn’t identify a base chain, however they did identify ConsenSys as a core expertise companion and emphasised ISO 20022 compliance and smart-contract-enforced enterprise guidelines.
In his Bloomberg interview, Lubin underscored a broader strategic shift: the long-standing separation between “TradFi” and “DeFi” is breaking down. “Since the beginning of Ethereum, we needed to keep on our personal rail… the vibe in Frankfurt was very totally different,” he mentioned, describing overwhelmingly constructive financial institution suggestions and calling it “about time for TradFi to merge or make use of DeFi.” He additionally characterised the present construct as a real prototype with technologists “on their facet and much on our facet,” reiterating that SWIFT would management the messaging scope whereas banks discover deeper layers like atomic settlement.
What “Using Ethereum” Means In Practice
While SWIFT has not formally specified the underlying chain in its press releases, a number of business stories following Sibos and subsequent public remarks by Lubin say the prototype will run on Ethereum infrastructure—particularly ConsenSys’ Linea, an Ethereum layer-2 community that makes use of zero-knowledge proofs—positioning the construct inside the Ethereum ecosystem whereas sustaining a permissioned perimeter per financial institution compliance necessities. That reporting aligns with ConsenSys’ personal assertion that it’s “supporting Swift with early-stage prototyping” for the shared ledger.
The institutional context issues. SWIFT’s ledger initiative comes amid fast development within the $300 billion stablecoin market and a wave of financial institution tokenization pilots; its acknowledged design aim is to increase current rails moderately than change them, permitting banks to decide into tokenized processes the place it improves pace, transparency, and finality.
Beyond SWIFT: Lubin’s Treasury Thesis
Lubin additionally used the Bloomberg phase to debate the rise of “digital-asset-backed treasuries” (DATs) such because the Ethereum-focused car he chairs at SharpLink. He argued that company ether accumulation is a “dampener on volatility,” describing ether as a “productive, yielding asset in contrast to bitcoin” when staked, and outlining a Berkshire-style flywheel during which a rising ETH base is deployed throughout Ethereum-aligned protocols for non-dilutive development.
The strategic through-line is obvious: if monetary incumbents standardize on Ethereum-based rails for messaging and, more and more, settlement, balance-sheet ETH turns into a strategic asset for establishments in search of publicity to the community’s exercise and yield.
At press time, ETH traded at $4,484.