Stablecoin's Real Competition is NOT Swift

“Faster and cheaper than SWIFT” - that’s the tagline often used to champion stablecoins in cross-border payments. But it's the wrong comparison.

Nearly 55% of SWIFT’s volume comes from high-value interbank settlements, not the kind of low-value, high-frequency transactions that power global commerce for SMEs and consumers.

SWIFT was built in the post-WWII era to connect banks across major trade corridors, such as the US, UK, Europe, and Asia, facilitating booming cross-border commerce and the corresponding bank transfers via secure messaging and standardization. Over the decades, it evolved, but its architecture still reflects its interbank roots.

Meanwhile, a new generation of payment infrastructure has emerged: one purpose-built for a globalized digital economy. New payment infrastructure that are built for the kind of high frequency and low value transactions that power commerce for SMEs and consumers came onto the scene.

The real benchmark for stablecoins isn’t SWIFT. It’s neobanks like Wise, which have quietly built one of the most efficient global payment networks for low-value transfers.

Let’s look at a few stats.

SWIFT:

76% of SMEs expect payments to reach the beneficiary in less than an hour

79% of consumers expect payments in less than an hour

Wise:

65% of payments take under 20 seconds

95% of payment arrives within 24 hours

To win the B2B payments race, stablecoins must outperform Wise, not SWIFT, on speed, reliability, and global reach.

And the upside? Massive. According to SWIFT, “low-value (<$100K) cross-border payment flows now exceed $12 trillion annually.” That’s the true prize.

In this week’s edition, we break down Wise’s global payment infrastructure so we can understand exactly what stablecoins are up against.

Let’s dive in.

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