Japanese banks presented live pilot data at the 2026 XRP (XRP) Tokyo conference showing the token settles cross-border payments 60% cheaper and in under four seconds compared to SWIFT.
XRP Tokyo Conference Results
At the Apr. 10 event, major Japanese banks revealed side-by-side test results from actual remittance corridors between Japan and Southeast Asia. The banks ran transactions through both XRP and SWIFT infrastructure simultaneously, measuring cost and speed in real time.
The pilot showed XRP completed settlements in just under four seconds.
SWIFT, by contrast, typically requires one to five business days because payments must pass through a chain of correspondent banks, each verifying and forwarding the transaction before it reaches the recipient.
XRP advocate Diana highlighted the findings on X, noting three structural reasons for the cost gap.
The XRP Ledger converts a sender's currency into XRP, transfers it across borders in seconds, and converts it into the recipient's local currency on arrival, eliminating multiple intermediary fees. Unlike SWIFT, the network requires no pre-funded overseas accounts, freeing capital that banks would otherwise lock up in foreign reserves.
During the conference, Ripple also announced the expansion of its On-Demand Liquidity platform to include 12 new currency pairs, widening the token's reach across more payment corridors.
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Ripple's SWIFT Rivalry
The rivalry between Ripple and SWIFT dates back years.
SWIFT, founded in 1973, connects more than 11,000 financial institutions across 200 countries through a messaging network that coordinates payments but does not move money itself. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has stated openly that his company's goal is not to partner with SWIFT but to replace its settlement layer.
SWIFT has not stood still. The Brussels-based cooperative partnered with Chainlink to test tokenized asset transfers and is building a blockchain-based cross-border payment scheme with more than 40 global banks, targeting a mid-2026 launch.
In early 2026, Ripple acquired GTreasury, now rebranded as Ripple Treasury, which had been a SWIFT-certified partner since 2014. The acquisition placed Ripple deeper inside enterprise treasury infrastructure while keeping XRP separate from SWIFT's messaging protocol.
At least 30 of the 50-plus banks in SWIFT's new retail payments framework already use Ripple's technology, though most rely on RippleNet for messaging rather than XRP-based settlement. Whether those institutions shift toward On-Demand Liquidity will depend on whether XRP's cost savings outweigh the compliance burden of holding a digital asset on bank balance sheets.