Ripple has closed the book on its long fight with the SEC, clearing the way to focus on its original mission: building a faster and cheaper alternative to SWIFT. The question now is whether banks and regulators are ready to embrace XRP (XRP-USD) in place of the system that has moved money across borders for the past five decades.
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SWIFT Still Holds the Global Payments Crown
SWIFT is the backbone of global payments, processing more than 53 million messages a day across 220 countries. Its scale is unmatched, but it comes with problems such as delays, high fees, and limited transparency. One in ten payments fails, and one in twenty settles late, according to SWIFT itself.
Ripple argues its ledger offers a fix. XRP transactions clear in seconds and cost pennies, a sharp contrast to SWIFT’s multi-day transfers. The firm’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse has long said Ripple is building to replace SWIFT, and partnerships around the world show growing interest in blockchain rails for money movement.
The SEC Case Is Finally Done
Ripple’s U.S. expansion has been held back by years of courtroom drama. In 2020, the SEC sued the company, claiming its sales of XRP were unregistered securities offerings. The case dragged through rulings and appeals until this August, when both sides agreed to end it. Ripple paid a $125 million penalty, but it also secured something rare in crypto: legal clarity that XRP is not a security in most contexts.
That clarity gives Ripple a unique edge. Few other tokens in the U.S. enjoy the same green light. Still, the lawsuit slowed adoption at home, even as Ripple gained partners abroad.
Why SWIFT Still Holds the Edge
The real challenge is not legal, but practical. Every major bank already “speaks SWIFT,” and changing systems comes with cost, risk, and years of work. Analysts point out that SWIFT’s network effect is its moat: replacing it is far harder than building a technically superior option.
Ripple executives acknowledge this. They say the goal is not to rip out legacy rails but to modernize them with blockchain, making settlement faster and more efficient. Tools like Ripple’s own dollar-backed stablecoin are meant to bridge that gap by giving banks something that feels familiar.
There Is a Market Opening in the U.S.
Even if banks are slow to shift, the political climate in the U.S. is moving in Ripple’s favor. Lawmakers have created clear rules for stablecoins and drawn lines against a government-issued digital dollar, leaving room for private issuers like Ripple to grow. Brad Garlinghouse has called the opportunity “massive” and says the U.S. is finally ready to modernize its payment rails.
The road to overtaking SWIFT is long, but for the first time in years, Ripple can chase that ambition without a courtroom distraction hanging over its head.
At the time of writing, XRP is sitting at $3.0099.
