As the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares for a pivotal upgrade to its payment system, industry insiders are turning their attention to Ripple’s native XRP token.

The transition to ISO 20022 for Fedwire, going live today, is being called the biggest payments event in decades, and analysts believe XRP is perfectly positioned to benefit.

The ISO 20022 Revolution and Ripples Integration

ISO 20022 represents a worldwide standard for financial messaging, offering richer data, improved efficiency, and greater interoperability compared to older systems. The Federal Reserve Financial Services officially confirmed its adoption in the U.S. on July 1.

This follows similar moves by other major global payment networks like SWIFT, with Booshan Rengachari, CEO of banking infrastructure provider Finzly, calling it “a massive upgrade for the entire payment industry.”

The implementation itself may not explicitly reference crypto, but XRP supporters have been highlighting Ripple’s longstanding alignment with ISO 20022 as a key opportunity. In May 2020, the crypto firm became the first distributed ledger operator to join the ISO 20022 standard body, laying the groundwork for future integration.

Further fueling this optimism is the companys established infrastructure partnerships with Volante Technologies, a global provider of payment solutions and a key player in the Fedwire ecosystem. It recently confirmed its platform will enable settlement using XRP through its connectivity with RippleNet, which was established in October 2015. This integration means institutions using Volantes cloud-based Fedwire-as-a-Service can choose XRP as a settlement mechanism.

According to analysts, the huge transaction volume expected to flow through the newly ISO 20022-enabled Fedwire creates a vast potential playground for efficient, blockchain-based settlement solutions like those offered by Ripple and Volante.

“ISO 20022 + Volante + Ripple (XRP) — Fedwire, largest source of present day transaction volume,” posted pseudonymous market watcher SMQKE on X, adding that “quadrillions” would be flowing into XRP. While that figure may be speculative, the infrastructure now exists for serious institutional experimentation.

Ripple’s Institutional Strategy

The Fed’s ISO 20022 implementation also comes when Ripple has been ramping up its own institutional efforts, including applying for a U.S. national banking license through its subsidiary, Standard Custody. If approved, this would place the company under dual state and federal oversight, a position many expect to boost its credibility significantly.

Furthermore, it has requested a Federal Reserve Master Account, allowing it to hold reserves for its NYDFS-approved RLUSD stablecoin directly with the Fed. The dollar-pegged crypto asset, now custodied by the oldest U.S. bank, BNY Mellon, is purpose-built for enterprise utility in cross-border payments and boasts a market cap exceeding $500 million.

Elsewhere, another of Ripple’s recent acquisitions, Hidden Road, has begun offering OTC swaps for U.S. institutions, hinting at its possible evolution into a full-stack institutional liquidity provider.

Looking at the market, XRP has not been left out of the green bandwagon that is taking over the broader crypto ecosystem. At the time of this writing, the asset was up 5.1% in the last 24 hours, and almost 29% over the previous week. A rise of 416% across the past year has pushed it just 14% away from its all-time high of $3.40 achieved in 2018.