A video from 2018 is circulating online showing Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confidently predicting that his company would replace SWIFT, the global financial messaging system. Back then, Ripple was a young company actively promoting itself as a quicker and cheaper alternative. Today, Ripple has grown considerably, with major advancements in areas like regulatory compliance, payment technology, worldwide use, partnerships, and banking relationships.
Ripple CEO Makes Bold Claim To Surpass SWIFT
In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse was asked if his company could replace SWIFT, the dominant global financial messaging network. He confidently replied that Ripple was already on track to do so, pointing to agreements with over 100 banks. He also highlighted that some of the world’s biggest banks, which currently use SWIFT, are now utilizing Ripple’s technology.
Brad Garlinghouse expressed optimism about Ripple’s future, believing it can revolutionize how payments are made worldwide. He highlighted a real-world example: a money transfer company saw its transaction costs drop from $20 to $2 after implementing Ripple’s technology in 2018, immediately increasing usage by 800%. Garlinghouse believes Ripple excels at enabling this kind of rapid growth, something the traditional SWIFT system has difficulty achieving.
Although Ripple has ambitious goals, many people in the cryptocurrency world are still unsure about its potential. This skepticism is likely because SWIFT has been the trusted standard for global financial messaging since 1973. Over those decades, SWIFT has established a strong reputation for reliability, security, and regulatory compliance – things Ripple is still working to achieve.
While SWIFT has been the standard for years, it has some significant drawbacks that Ripple is designed to address. SWIFT transactions can take anywhere from one to five days to complete, whereas Ripple processes transfers almost instantly. Furthermore, SWIFT charges $25 to $50 per transaction, a stark difference compared to Ripple’s institutional payment costs, which typically range from just $0.001 to $0.01.
A major limitation of SWIFT is that it doesn’t actually transfer money itself. It only sends payment instructions, and still depends on banks pre-funding accounts. This is where Ripple offers a significant improvement. Unlike SWIFT, which uses intermediaries and pre-funded accounts that slow down transactions, Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) uses the cryptocurrency XRP to facilitate faster transfers. ODL instantly converts the sender’s money into XRP, sends it across the network, and then converts it back into the receiver’s currency – completing the process in just seconds.
How Ripple Has Evolved Since 2018
Today, Ripple has made significant progress since 2018. It has successfully resolved its lengthy legal case with the US SEC, and now has clearer rules and acceptance from regulators. Alongside this, the company has continued to grow internationally and improve the XRP Ledger (XRPL) with updates and better security.
The company is still working to compete with or collaborate with SWIFT. They’ve built connections with hundreds of financial institutions like banks, payment companies, and remittance services. Through purchases of companies like Hidden Road, Metaco, and GTreasury, Ripple has broadened its services to include things like secure storage, transaction settlement, and managing company finances, going beyond just payments.
Ripple recently achieved a major step forward when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) conditionally approved its application for a national bank charter. If fully approved, this license would officially recognize Ripple as a federally regulated bank, moving the company closer to its objectives.

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2026-04-08 16:34