Morning Edition · Sunday, August 30, 2026Published at 1:48 AM EDT · New York

Bankers and Crypto Executives Argue Over Whether Stablecoins Can Displace Swift

Swift's 11,500-institution membership is the argument bankers make for absorbing blockchain settlement rather than being replaced by it, while some executives say the currency machines will use has not been built.

The contest between stablecoin rails and the interbank messaging network Swift is now being argued in explicit terms by the people running both. Crypto executives say blockchain settlement makes Swift's model obsolete. Bankers say Swift's n…