SWIFT-ly Coming Onchain
Swift, the pre-emminent global financial messaging service, announced that it is adding a blockchain-based shared ledger to its infrastructure stack to unlock instant, always-on cross-border transactions possible at unprecedented scale.
The announcement was made during Swift’s annual flagship Sibos conference, following recent reports that it was experimenting with onchain migration of its financial messaging system using Ethereum Layer 2 Linea.
The shared ledger will be developed in partnership with a group of more than 30 financial institutions globally, including Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Societe Generale FORGE, and Standard Chartered. It is envisaged that the ledger — a secure, real-time log of transactions between financial institutions — will record, sequence and validate transactions and enforce rules through smart contracts. Swift’s focus is on the infrastructure – the types of tokens that will be exchanged on the ledger is the territory of commercial and central banks.
The first use case of the ledger will be real-time 24/7 cross-border payments, and Swift will work with Consensys to develop the first conceptual prototype. Consensys is also the developer of the Linea Layer 2 network.
Tether, Softbank and ArkInvest Teams Up?
Reports indicate that SoftBank Group and Ark Investment are among the firms discussing participation in a major Tether fundraise.
These reports follow earlier news that Tether was seeking to fundraise between $15-20 billion for a 3% equity stake. This would value the world’s largest stablecoin issuer at ~$500 billion. Cantor Fitzgerald is reportedly advising Tether on this fundraising exercise.
Tether, Softbank, and Cantor have existing business relationships – earlier this year these firms, together with Jack Mallers, launched bitcoin treasury company Twenty One Capital, which currently holds 43,514 BTC.
In Other News…
US Spot Solana ETFs Imminent. A cluster of amended filings for Solana ETFs from high-profile asset managers suggest that spot Solana ETFs with staking could hit the market within weeks.
HyPurrliquid. Hyperliquid has launched its Hypurr NFT today. The 4,600 NFT collection was airdropped to HYPE airdrop recipients who opted in to receive NFTs. Hypurr’s floor price sits at $68,930 with Hypurr #21 notably being sold for over $470K.
MrBeast Loads Up On Aster. The famed YouTuber has bought an additional $320K worth of ASTER, bringing total holdings to around $1.28M. Aster is a trending Perpetual DEX who has secured the top spot in terms of daily revenue generation.
Sonic Appoints New CEO. Sonic Labs, the team behind the S token appoints Mitchell Demeter, as their new CEO. Demeter will steer the team towards their next phase of growth, focused on increasing institutional adoption.