- Ripple announced at Davos 2025 its plan to replace SWIFT with its faster, cheaper XRP-powered payment platform.
- This move has sparked major optimism, with experts predicting XRP could reach $15,000 if Ripple succeeds in overtaking SWIFT’s $5 trillion-a-day transaction network.
Ripple Davos Declaration: A SWIFT Exit Strategy?
Ripple dropped a game-changing bombshell at the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos. Eric van Miltenburg, Ripple’s SVP of Strategic Initiatives, boldly declared that the company isn’t aiming to work alongside SWIFT—it plans to replace it. During a high-profile panel, Van Miltenburg emphasized that Ripple’s blockchain-based payment platform is built to operate independently, delivering faster transactions at significantly lower costs than the legacy system.
Describing Ripple as a “SWIFT update or replacement,” Van Miltenburg’s comments ignited a firestorm of excitement within the XRP community. The message was clear: Ripple is gunning for the top spot in the $5 trillion-a-day cross-border payments market.
Cutting Out the Middlemen: Hidden Road & ODL
Ripple’s recent acquisition of Hidden Road has further solidified its position. This strategic move grants Ripple direct access to traditional financial systems, removing the need for legacy intermediaries. Influential XRP community voice, Crypto Eri, underscored this shift by sharing a panel clip that reinforced Ripple’s no-partnership stance toward SWIFT.
Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, powered by Ripple , already enables near-instant, low-cost settlements—something traditional correspondent banking simply can’t match. According to crypto analyst Arthur XRP, this has always been Ripple’s goal: to dismantle outdated financial systems and streamline global payments.
$15K XRP? Dream or Destiny?
Former London-based fund manager DigitalG believes that if Ripple fully replaces SWIFT, XRP could skyrocket to $15,000 per token. With SWIFT currently processing trillions daily across over 11,000 institutions, the potential market is staggering. He highlighted XRP’s micro-unit structure, allowing for ultra-high volume handling—but also warned that scalability and regulatory hurdles remain key challenges.
The Path Forward
Despite ongoing legal battles in the U.S., Ripple’s aggressive positioning and expanding institutional use of XRP are fueling bullish sentiment. The global financial world is now watching closely. Will Ripple finally dethrone SWIFT? If Davos was any indication, the company isn’t just aiming for disruption—it’s aiming for domination.
