SWIFT spokesperson: Cryptocurrencies are "useless and unstable"

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) has recently taken aim at cryptocurrencies in a statement, with a spokesperson criticizing the entire crypto industry as "useless" during a meeting in London.

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is the provider of a network that facilitates international bank transfers between banks.

The FXStreet report released on September 10 covered a briefing in London this month, quoting an unnamed representative of SWIFT who claimed:

Cryptocurrencies are as useless as a yo-yo, they have no utility and are unstable. Even if a crypto company ensures its value is stable, it is still just a basket of currencies.

According to a report, representatives at the briefing acknowledged the flaws in the SWIFT network itself, which connects approximately 11,000 banks and financial institutions globally.

While SWIFT processes millions of transactions daily, it is slow and expensive. If you go to a bank to make an international transfer after noon, it is likely to be delayed by more than 12 hours due to business hours.

The main topic of the briefing was reportedly about SWIFT's new European E2E payment trial project, claiming to achieve transfer times of less than a minute.

Short-term Impact of Libra

SWIFT does recognize potential competition from Facebook's stablecoin project Libra, with SWIFT representatives expecting the impact of the stablecoin project to be short-term.

The criticism from the representative also drew a response from Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano, who pointed out on Twitter:

Bitcoin has about 100,000 nodes, SWIFT has 11,000 banks. SWIFT's network is one-tenth the size of Bitcoin, and Bitcoin is just getting started.

Bitcoin’s network has roughly 100,000 nodes.

SWIFT’s network has roughly 11,000 nodes (banks).

Bitcoin’s network is almost 10x larger than SWIFT.

And Bitcoin is just getting started 🔥

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) September 10, 2019

In fact, SWIFT's stance on cryptocurrencies aligns with that of many large multinational companies, having a strong negative view on cryptocurrencies but a positive attitude towards blockchain technology, continuously experimenting with projects related to distributed ledger technology.

Former SWIFT Chief Operating Officer Luc Meurant once stated that payment systems built on distributed ledger technology are taking off, and we need faster and more secure ways to settle transactions.

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