Expert Says ‘Absolutely Nothing Happened’ to XRP as ISO 20022 Officially Goes Live

The XRP community is abuzz as the long-anticipated transition to ISO 20022 is finally here, a major change in global payments messaging.

Despite the hype built over the years within certain pockets of the XRP community, activity on the XRP Ledger remained unchanged as the new standard went live.

ISO 20022 Goes Live, But XRPL Traffic Stays Flat

On November 22, the coexistence period between SWIFT’s legacy MT messages and ISO 20022 officially ended. From now on, all bank-to-bank payment instructions on SWIFT will use the ISO 20022 format.

While this marks a major transformation for global financial infrastructure, the XRP Ledger saw no notable change in usage or transaction flow. XRPL throughput remained around 22 transactions per second, according to validator and XRPL developer Vet.

This confirms what many technical experts have reiterated for years: ISO 20022’s activation does not automatically translate into increased XRP usage or liquidity demand.

XRP Is Not an “ISO Coin” The Myth Ends

For years, a narrative circulated in the crypto community claiming that ISO 20022 would “force” banks to use XRP. However, XRPL validators and former Ripple staff have reiterated that ISO 20022 is merely a messaging standard, not a settlement system tied to any cryptocurrency.

With the official activation and no impact on XRPL, ex-Ripple developer Matt Hamilton joked on X that the myth is now over. He also acknowledged that those still attached to the narrative “will come up with another ISO 20022 nonsense theory.”

“Ended” hahahahahahahahahaahahah. The idiots will come up the another Iso20022 nonsense theory

— Matt Hamilton (@HammerToe) November 23, 2025

Indeed, the XRP Ledger is not connected to ISO 20022 by default, nor does the standard grant XRP any special status. Any digital asset or none at all can be used alongside ISO 20022.

Ripple’s own CTO has previously stated that XRP has no inherent link to the standard. He stressed that the two operate on entirely separate layers of the payments stack.

“XRP has nothing to do with ISO 20022.”
ISO 20022 is a messaging standard for payments, XRP is a cryptocurrency. While there could certainly be projects using both of these things, there is no real inherent overlap between them. 8/13

— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) April 8, 2023

The Real Role of ISO 20022

ISO 20022 is a significant upgrade for the payments industry, bringing richer data, better compliance, and more automation. Banks around the world prepared for it, with SWIFT advising institutions not to send messages during the transition to avoid processing problems.

This weekend marks a major milestone in payments: the coexistence period between MT and ISO 20022 message standards ends. From 22 November 2025, all FI-to-FI payment instruction messages will be delivered only in ISO 20022 format.

ISO 20022 brings richer data, better… pic.twitter.com/zlsNSes2s8

— Swift (@swiftcommunity) November 21, 2025

However, this upgrade affects banking infrastructure, not crypto settlements or XRP Ledger activity. Now that ISO 20022 is live, the results show it hasn’t changed anything for XRPL.

Accordingly, past predictions that it would cause huge transaction spikes, automatic institutional adoption, or higher demand for XRP have not materialized.

Ultimately, ISO 20022 matters for global finance, but it doesn’t automatically boost XRP or other cryptocurrencies. XRPL continues to grow based on its own technology, ecosystem, and real-world use — not because of banking messaging standards.