XRP vs SWIFT: Why Ripple Is Targeting Parked Bank Money
SWIFT sends payment messages, not money. How prefunding ties up bank cash, what Ripple built for idle liquidity, and three questions XRP holders should ask.
Key takeaways
- SWIFT carries payment messages. According to its own compliance paper, it does not hold funds or manage accounts for anyone.
- Banks prefund accounts around the world so money is waiting when a SWIFT message arrives. Ripple has called this 'trillions of dollars trapped' since 2018.
- According to the video, Ripple launched Ripple Treasury on April 1 with XRP and RLUSD accounts, and Ripple's own page lists it in SWIFT's certified partner program.
- Brad Garlinghouse said only about 0.1% of the roughly $16 trillion Ripple touched last year settled on-chain. His 14% of SWIFT volume target is a forecast, not a done deal.
- Know where your XRP is kept, who holds the keys, whether it earns anything and who pays it, and what your plan is before a big headline arrives.
For years, many XRP holders have waited for the day XRP “replaces SWIFT.” A Bullrunners video argues that framing misses the point. SWIFT, the network banks use to send payment instructions abroad, does not move money at all. The money has to be parked in advance on the other side of the world, and that parked money is what Ripple has been targeting since 2018.
The video traces that story from a 1974 bank failure to a Ripple product launched this April, then turns it back on holders with a simple question: is your own XRP sitting idle in the same way? Here is what the video covers, what is fact and what is forecast, and the three decisions it leaves holders with.
Does SWIFT actually move money?
No. SWIFT carries messages, and the money has to be waiting before anyone presses send. The video points to SWIFT’s own history: in 1973, 239 banks from 15 countries created a neutral cooperative called the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The last word, telecommunication, is the clue.
According to the video, SWIFT’s own compliance paper says it does not hold funds or manage accounts for anyone. The host’s analogy: write “pay 100 pounds” on a scrap of paper. That note is the SWIFT message. The cash is still in your wallet, because the note does not move a penny.
The video also uses history to show why settlement risk matters. On June 26, 1974, German regulators pulled the license of Herstatt, a bank in Cologne, at the end of the German working day. Other banks had already paid it Deutsche marks for currency deals, and the dollars owed back were due in New York, where the day was still running. Those dollars never arrived.
What is prefunding and why does it matter?
Prefunding is money banks park in advance in accounts around the world so it is ready when a SWIFT message lands. A bank in London, for example, keeps dollars in an account in New York and pesos and yen in other countries. The video compares it to leaving a float in the till of every shop you might ever buy from.
The video is fair to SWIFT on speed. In a June video, SWIFT said 75% of payments on its network reach beneficiary banks in under 10 minutes. But that measures the message reaching the other bank. The money still had to be there first. According to the video, even SWIFT’s new ledger has the sending bank commit funds up front.
The banks that hold those accounts for others are called correspondent banks, the middlemen of cross-border payments. The video cites the head of the IMF in 2020 describing cross-border payments as slow, opaque, costly and inaccessible to part of the 1.7 billion unbanked people worldwide. The same clip said correspondent banks were 22% fewer than in 2011 and remittances still cost 7% on average. The video says the Bank for International Settlements backs up the decline.
Fewer middlemen means each one holds more of the keys. In August, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said Ripple competes indirectly with Citi, which he described as the largest or second-largest correspondent bank on the SWIFT network. By his estimate, Citi makes about $5 billion of gross margin from correspondent banking. The video’s point: that is a business built on the waiting, which is why change is slow.
How did Ripple pitch XRP as the fix?
Ripple pitched XRP as a way to move value without parking money in advance. In March 2018, Ripple described prefunded money as “trillions of dollars trapped.” Three months later, Garlinghouse called SWIFT’s upgrade a Ferrari shell on a Model T engine.
On Bloomberg that March, Garlinghouse described the US dollar to Mexican peso corridor: hold dollars, buy XRP, move the XRP to Mexico in about 3 seconds, then sell it for pesos. Nothing has to sit waiting in Mexico. According to the video, Ripple switched this service, called on-demand liquidity, on for paying customers on October 1, 2018. One payment firm said in a clip that using it gave access to more than 100 institutions and eliminated prefunding. In October 2022, a Ripple account summed it up as “prefunding destination accounts eliminated.”
| Approach | What moves | Does money wait in advance? |
|---|---|---|
| SWIFT message | Payment instructions | Yes, prefunded in correspondent accounts |
| Ripple on-demand liquidity | XRP across the border, converted at each end | No, per Ripple |
| Ripple Treasury | A dashboard of a company’s cash, with XRP and RLUSD accounts | Aimed at putting idle cash to work, per Ripple |
What is Ripple Treasury and is it part of SWIFT?
Ripple Treasury is a cash management dashboard for large companies’ finance teams, and according to Ripple’s own page it is part of SWIFT’s certified partner program. The video says Ripple launched it on April 1, built on a treasury software firm Ripple bought the previous October for about a billion dollars. By Ripple’s count, that platform handled $13 trillion of payments last year.
It now includes an XRP and RLUSD account, and Ripple says overnight yield on idle cash is coming. The host suggests readers search “Ripple Treasury partners” to see the SWIFT partner listing for themselves.
The video is careful here: this is not XRP replacing SWIFT. It is Ripple walking in through SWIFT’s front door with a product aimed at the money that sits waiting.
How much of Ripple’s volume settles on-chain?
Very little so far. In August, Garlinghouse said Ripple touched about $16 trillion of transactions last year, and only about 0.1% of that settled on-chain, meaning through a stablecoin, XRP or another on-chain method. By his math, each extra 0.1% that moves on-chain equals about $160 billion.
He added that finance chiefs are now asking Ripple how to unlock money they hold around the world that is dormant and not earning yield. The video notes the phrase “trapped capital” is the same idea Ripple used in 2018, now coming from customers.
Is XRP replacing SWIFT?
Not on the evidence so far. According to the video, no bank and not SWIFT itself has announced it is swapping its network for XRP. SWIFT’s own line is that it is not replacing what works but strengthening it. On crypto, SWIFT says it invests “responsibly” in innovations such as digital currencies, tokenized assets and AI. As the host puts it, that is not a date anyone can plan around.
Garlinghouse has framed the contest differently. At Ripple’s Apex event in Singapore last June, as reported by CoinDesk, he said SWIFT has two parts, messaging and liquidity, and the liquidity is owned by the banks. He said he focuses on the liquidity and forecast Ripple could reach 14% of SWIFT volume in five years. That is his forecast, not an outcome. The host thinks there is a real chance it happens but that it may take longer than people want.
Three questions for XRP holders
The video turns the story back on holders. Banks spent years trying to stop their cash sitting idle, while many retail holders bought XRP and left it in an app with no plan. The video offers a quick check and three decisions.
The quick check: open whatever app or wallet holds your XRP and find what it earned last month. If the answer is something, find out who is paying it. The video points to Voyager, which stopped customer withdrawals and rewards on the same day, July 1, 2022.
The three decisions:
- Where is your XRP kept, and who holds the keys? You, or a company that could freeze withdrawals.
- Is it earning anything while you wait, and who is paying? Any yield carries the risk of whoever provides it.
- What is your plan when a big headline lands? Decide in advance how and when you would act, rather than letting a headline decide for you.
The host shares his own experience from 2022: checking the price daily, selling in hope of buying back cheaper, never taking profit on the way up, and giving gains back. His point is that having no plan was the problem, not the asset.
What to watch next
The next marker the video flags is Swell, Ripple’s event in New York from October 27 to 29, which this year is combined with Apex. If Ripple has more to announce about Ripple Treasury or yield on idle cash, the host expects it there.
Beyond that, the useful signals are the ones Garlinghouse himself set: whether the on-chain share of Ripple’s volume moves meaningfully above 0.1%, and whether any SWIFT member bank publicly announces using XRP for liquidity. Until then, the video’s view is that the story is about parked money, not SWIFT vanishing overnight.
Frequently asked questions
Does SWIFT actually move money?
No. SWIFT was set up in 1973 as a messaging cooperative, and according to the video its own compliance paper says it does not hold funds or manage accounts. The money has to already be sitting in accounts on the other side, which is called prefunding.
What is prefunding in cross-border payments?
Prefunding means banks park money in advance in accounts in other countries so funds are ready when a payment instruction arrives. The video compares it to leaving a float in the till of every shop you might buy from.
Is XRP replacing SWIFT?
According to the video, no bank and not SWIFT itself has announced it is swapping its network for XRP. SWIFT says it is strengthening what works rather than replacing it, while Ripple is targeting the prefunded liquidity rather than the messaging.
What is Ripple Treasury?
According to the video, Ripple Treasury launched on April 1 and is built on a treasury software firm Ripple bought for about a billion dollars. It is a dashboard companies use to track their cash, now with XRP and RLUSD accounts, and Ripple says overnight yield on idle cash is coming.
How much of Ripple's volume settles on-chain?
Brad Garlinghouse said Ripple touched about $16 trillion of transactions last year and only about 0.1% of that settled on-chain through stablecoins, XRP or other on-chain methods. He said each additional 0.1% would equal about $160 billion.
Education and commentary only, not financial advice. Crypto is volatile and you can lose money. Do your own research and speak to a qualified advisor before making investment decisions. Figures and quotes are as reported in the video on October 4, 2026 and may have changed since.
