SWIFT, which routes about $5 trillion a day across 11,500 institutions in roughly 200 countries and regions, is moving to modernize its cross-border payments infrastructure as stablecoins, tokenized deposits and blockchain-based payment systems gain ground on speed and cost. A single cross-border SWIFT transaction still costs about 1% to 4% and typically takes one to five business days to settle. Last month, SWIFT launched a blockchain ledger, and HSBC and Standard Chartered completed the first real-time transaction on the system, cutting settlement time to seconds. BNY expects the stablecoin and tokenized cash market to reach $3.7 trillion by 2030, while Citigroup projects tokenized securities could grow to $5.5 trillion over the same period.