Ripple's ambition in the global payments sector is becoming clearer and more direct, as CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly stated at APEX 2025 that the company is targeting the takeover of SWIFT's customer base. This commentary follows Ripple's long-term strategy to transform the global banking infrastructure from outdated systems to the blockchain-based XRP Ledger. Meanwhile, central banks are increasingly paying attention to this, with recent reports indicating that Ripple's network capabilities are currently being studied alongside SWIFT's systems in trials.

Garlinghouse Aims for SWIFT's Market Share

Speaking at the APEX summit, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that Ripple's goal is not only to compete with SWIFT but also to replace SWIFT's role in global money transfers. According to Garlinghouse, although SWIFT is very dominant in terms of messaging, the most important aspect is the liquidity that banks can provide.

"I care less about the message and focus more on liquidity," he said. Ripple is targeting this deeper infrastructure among banks, which is the real movement of value. Interestingly,

Garlinghouse asserts that Ripple plans to capture up to 14% of SWIFT's current cross-border transaction volume within five years. This is an aspirational number, especially considering SWIFT's current operational scale. Recent estimates show that SWIFT is currently processing over 45 million financial messages and handling about $5 trillion in money transfer transactions each day. Even 14% of that market share would represent hundreds of billions of dollars in value flowing through Ripple's ecosystem, creating significant demand for XRP.

Central Banks Are Exploiting

Garlinghouse's comments come at a time when the momentum of institutions appears to be shifting in favor of Ripple. Interestingly, Ripple's global development is not limited to partnerships in the private sector.

A cryptocurrency enthusiast on the social media platform X, known by the nickname Finance Bull, recently drew attention to the increasing interest of central banks in blockchain-based payment infrastructure. It is no surprise that Ripple's technology is a central focus of this growing interest.

Ripple's xCurrent solution, built on the Interledger Protocol (ILP), has recently been studied alongside SWIFT's GPI system as part of Project Stella. Project Stella is a collaborative research initiative between the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan.

Essentially, this means that central banks are beginning to consider Ripple's technology, which says a lot about the prospects of this ecosystem in the coming years. The fact that two of the most influential central banks in the world have looked into Ripple's infrastructure alongside SWIFT is a signal that the utility of XRP is currently being evaluated as a focal point in discussions about global monetary policy.

These developments align well with the long-held belief of many passionate XRP supporters. There have been continuous predictions from the most confident individuals in the community that the price of XRP will surely surpass its all-time high of $3.40. Some technical analyses have predicted that XRP's price could reach double digits. Other predictions for XRP's price could go up to $1,000.