The reason why the ISO 20022 international standard is reevaluating the "veteran cryptocurrencies"

Looking at recent market trends, cryptocurrencies that have long been overlooked, such as XRP, XLM, HBAR, and others, are beginning to rise rapidly. In just one month, XRP has surged nearly 400%, making it a hot topic within the industry. There may be more behind this phenomenon than mere sector rotation.

A New Evaluation Framework for Cryptocurrencies Under the Trump Administration

As evidenced by Bitcoin breaking the $100,000 mark, attitudes toward digital assets are undergoing a major shift. With political support, Wall Street has regained interest in the “payment functionality” of cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, many of the leading projects driving this upward trend are related to international remittances and payment solutions.

The Unified Language of Finance: What is ISO 20022?

The reason these projects are gaining attention is closely linked to the international standard ISO 20022. Born in 2004, ISO 20022 is an international financial communication standard developed by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) technical committee TC68.

Technically, ISO 20022:

• Provides a set of rules for global financial institutions to send and receive messages in a unified format
• Supports multiple financial sectors such as payments, securities, trade, card payments, and foreign exchange
• Creates a platform where institutions do not need to communicate in their own “dialects”

Problems with Traditional International Remittances

When sending $1,000 abroad, the process traditionally involved multiple “translations” as the money passed through various financial institutions. Different formats used by each bank could lead to the loss of critical information such as payment purpose or invoice numbers during conversion. It was essentially a game of telephone.

Changes Brought by Implementing ISO 20022

With ISO 20022, all financial institutions will speak the same “language.” As a result:

• Message capacity expands from 140 characters to 9,000 characters
• Data structures are unified, enabling automated processing
• International remittances become more transparent and efficient

Current Status of Cryptocurrencies Supporting ISO 20022

Several crypto projects are actively working to support ISO 20022.

XRP (Ripple) is the only project with official certification, fully integrating the ISO 20022 message standard into RippleNet. It has partnerships with over 200 financial institutions and collaborates on CBDC projects with multiple central banks.

XLM (Stellar) supports the standard technically and is working with over 350 banks through a strategic partnership with MoneyGram.

HBAR (Hedera) adopts ISO 20022-compliant message formats and offers enterprise solutions with high-throughput distributed ledger technology.

ADA (Cardano) is implementing through the Atala PRISM identity solution and building government-level collaborations with several African countries.

QNT (Quant) enables cross-chain interoperability via the Overledger platform and participates in CBDC development.

ALGO (Algorand) and six other cryptocurrencies are also working on building payment networks compliant with the ISO 20022 standard.

Performance Matters More Than “Legitimacy”

Within the industry, discussions about ISO 20022 are divided. Some claim that only XRP with official certification is a genuine supporting project, while others point out that ISO 20022 itself is an open technical standard supported at various levels by multiple projects.

What matters most is not whether a project has “official certification,” but whether it aims to solve real problems, whether its solutions are feasible, and whether it holds a competitive advantage in the current market environment.

Projects like Ripple making tangible progress in international remittances, Stellar’s collaboration with MoneyGram, and Cardano’s implementations in Africa demonstrate different approaches and achievements.

Viewing the Market from a Long-Term Perspective

In conclusion, when facing long-term trends, rushing to invest based on short-term speculation can often lead to penalties from the market. Understanding each project’s actual technological progress, implementation in the market, and real-world impact is key to making more sustainable investment decisions.