Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicts that the XRP Ledger (XRPL) could capture 14% of SWIFT's global liquidity within five years, emphasizing liquidity over messaging services. Garlinghouse made this statement at a press conference at XRP Ledger Apex 2025 in Singapore on June 10.

Ripple sets high ambitions for the XRP Ledger

Currently, RippleNet, Ripple's global payment network, has hundreds of participating banks.

However, the actual use of XRP through On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) is still limited to a select group, including MoneyGram, SBI Holdings, and Santander.

“SWIFT currently has two components—messaging and liquidity,” Garlinghouse explained. “Liquidity belongs to banks. I think less about messaging and more about liquidity. If you push the entire liquidity, then that is good for XRP. So, in five years, I assume 14%.”

Ripple's Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, also spoke at this event and highlighted the fundamental auditing challenges in financial transactions.

Schwartz said: “The big problem with auditing is if I give you a bunch of records and tell you to audit them, you might say these records are great. The problem arises if I owe someone money or have some unpaid debt that is not in the records provided.”

Ripple and XRPL frequently come up in discussions around the integration potential with SWIFT due to the fast payment speeds of XRPL.

Specifically, this network takes only about three to five seconds to settle cross-border payments, compared to the traditional SWIFT transactions that take days.

Additionally, the cost of XRPL is significantly lower. Just a fraction of a cent for each money transfer, compared to SWIFT fees of $20–50 per transaction.

Despite market speculation about a potential partnership between Ripple and SWIFT, there is still no official integration between the two networks.

However, SWIFT is actively transitioning to blockchain interoperability with the upcoming ISO 20022 upgrade in November 2025.

Ripple's Apex 2025 event also unveiled significant ecosystem upgrades. The team announced an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible sidechain and enhanced support for real-world assets like U.S. Treasury.

These developments underscore Ripple's growing ambition beyond cross-border payments.

Meanwhile, Ripple and the SEC paused their appeals for a 60-day settlement period in April. A status report will be submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals on June 16, signaling whether a settlement agreement has been reached.

If the SEC does not file before June 16, the appeals process may continue, potentially dragging the lawsuit into 2026.

Although Ripple has made some significant progress in the past few months, settling this lawsuit once and for all will be their core priority in Q2 2025.