Top ISO 20022 Crypto Coins for 2025: Full Guide & Comparison

With financial systems worldwide transitioning to the ISO 20022 standard, a new class of cryptocurrencies is being developed and designed for compliance, interoperability, and integration with the banks, governments, and payment providers.

ISO 20022 is the new universal language for sharing financial data. It allows institutions to send a rich, structured, and real-time payment messages enabling increased speed, intelligence, and transparency in financial services.

Why This Matters for Crypto Investors

• ✅ Several blockchain networks are already ISO 20022 compatible (or integrated directly into)
• ✅ These “compliant” tokens are supporting active projects with central banks, global banks, and enterprises
• ✅ They can be the building blocks of future CBDCs, tokenized assets, and regulated DeFi

In This In-Depth Guide, You’ll Discover:

• What ISO 20022 means for the future of finance and crypto
• The best ISO 20022 compliant cryptocurrencies in 2025
• How institutions are already using them
• Why these tokens could lead the next wave of real-world crypto adoption

ISO 20022 Crypto Tokens at a Glance (2025 Summary)

✅ All of these coins are considered ISO 20022-aligned for their focus on regulated finance, compliance, messaging interoperability, and real-world institutional partnerships.

Content Summary

Understanding ISO 20022 and Its Importance in Crypto

ISO 20022 is a global standard for financial messaging. It provides a framework for how payment data is exchanged across borders from financial institution to financial institution, in a consistent, structured and machine-readable format. By 2025, ISO 20022 has replaced prior systems such as SWIFT in Europe, the United States, and Asia as the new global language of payments.

The Purpose of ISO 20022

Existing financial systems rely on siloed, antiquated messaging standards which create inefficiencies and transparency issues. ISO 20022 was developed to do the following:

• Give more comprehensive payment data (full sender and receiver detail)
• Enhance fraud detection, anti-money laundering and compliance capabilities
• Decrease the time and errors in payments
• Improve cross-border interoperability in a multiple currency world

A Example: Today when you pay someone cross-border, your bank may be using legacy SWIFT messages which don’t contain enough data. ISO 20022 improves this by carrying a multitude of data within the payment including structured data—allowing for more automation and security.

What ISO 20022 means for crypto investors

As we see the financial sector transition to ISO 20022, all digital assets enter the market with both recognition and alternatives. In the future, we will see crypto assets not as alternatives, but rather the infrastructure for our traditional forms of finance.

Key Reasons Crypto + ISO 20022 is a Game-Changer:

• Regulatory alignment– tokens that have ISO compliance or are taking measures to be ISO compliant will have a much better chance of being utilized by banks, and central banks, or even governments.
• Institutionally compatible– Many of these coins are being put forward for category-based ETF’s, CBDC pilots and cross-border tests.
• Mass adoption– Coin’s such as XRP, XLM, HBAR, and XDC have already paved the way for payment rails and bridges for tokenization projects to take place.
• Interoperability– The value to ISO 20022 will give these cryptos interoperability to tone communication with traditional payment infrastructures such as SWIFT, SEPA and FedNow

Ripple (XRP) – The Leading ISO 20022 Crypto for Cross-Border Payments

💼 Overview

• Ticker: XRP
• Launched: 2012
• Category: Global Payments, Banking
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Yes
• Consensus Mechanism: Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA)

Ripple’s XRP token is seen as arguably the primary ISO 20022 cryptocurrency. The Ripple network was designed to allow banks and payment service providers to make cross-border payments with a service that was faster, cheaper and safer.

Ripple’s enterprise service RippleNet is allowing financial institutions to get connected together in real-time with a robust network and settlement service using XRP as a bridge asset to convert for currency without pre-funding a Nostro account. Needed to send payments was just the trust in the settlement provided in real-time.

How Ripple implements ISO 20022

Ripple is a member of the ISO 20022 standards organization, and is one of several block chain organizations to directly contribute to a level of standardization of global finance. It was designed to support the rich data messaging format that is ISO 20022 compliant.

Use Cases

• Cross-border payments (3-5 second settlement)
• Interbank transactions without an intermediary
• Tokenized asset transfers (CBDC’s, securities, stablecoins)

Institutional Participation

• Ripple has as partners use depending on the partnership some of Bank of America, SBI Holdings, Santander, and Tranglo and are using or piloting XRP as remittance rails.
• Ripple has piloted integrated services with SWIFT and is likely to remain a complement or competition to traditional messaging services over the long run.
• Ripple was one of the tokens chosen in 2023 as a part of pilot projects initiated by the U.S. government as a payment model for its international payments using blockchain technology.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated he excited about the ISO 20022 transition that will represent “a paradigm shift of financial standards that will bridge from today’s global banking system into the decentralized infrastructure of tomorrow.”

XRP Outlook for 2025

XRP continues to be one of the largest cryptocurrency service easily integrated with different institutions. With a more agreeable regulatory framework in the U.S. after several years of contested litigation, and a new burst of energy into CBDC partnerships, XRP is going to play a prominent role in the digitization of global finance over the next decade.

Stellar Lumens (XLM) – A Decentralized Network for Inclusive Global Payments

💼 Overview

• Ticker: XLM
• Launched: 2014
• Category: Peer-to-Peer Payments, Financial Access
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Yes
• Consensus Mechanism: Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP)

Stellar Lumens (XLM) is one of the original and most well-known cryptocurrencies focused on international remittances and financial inclusion. Their system connects banks, payment systems, and users to allow ultra-fast and low-cost transactions while catering to the unbanked and underbanked.

Stellar was co-founded by Jed McCaleb (also co-founder of Ripple), who should be familiarized with XRP and its vision; Stellar shares some of the vision but is more decentralized and nonprofit.

Why Stellar is ISO 20022?

Stellar’s open-source protocol is designed for structured, cross-border messaging and settlement, which is a good technical substrate for the ISO 20022 schema. While not a formal member of the ISO organization, Stellar’s features and partners put Stellar in the ISO-compliant category.

Important Use Cases

• Global remittances
• Cross-currency token transfers
• Anchors for stablecoins and fiat on/off ramps
• Micropayments and digital wallets in developing markets

Institutional Adoption

• The World Wire use case has established blockchain-based cross-border payment solutions using Stellar in over 70 countries.
• MoneyGram chose Stellar in 2022 to establish crypto to fiat on/off ramps in its stores; MoneyGram uses XLM for cash out, in real-time.
• Franklin Templeton is a large asset manager that explored tokenized money funds through Stellar, prior to its announcement of expanding into Polygon, in 2023.

Stellar’s open-source model and global partnerships make it one of the best platforms for versatile integration with ISO 20022 level finance.

Stella Outlook for 2025

As financial inclusion moves to the forefront of central banks’ and fintechs’ priorities, Stellar is well positioned to serve as a backbone for scalable and inclusive financial products and, given its established presence in remittances and ambition to support underbanked communities, XLM is likely to be the leading contender in the ISO 20022 aligned cryptocurrency infrastructure.

Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) – Enterprise-Grade Blockchain Built for Regulation

💼 Overview

• Ticker: HBAR
• Launched: 2019
• Category: Enterprise Blockchain, Tokenization, DeFi
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Yes (structurally aligned)
• Consensus Mechanism: Hashgraph (Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance)

Hedera (HBAR) is not a good standard blockchain, it is distributed ledger technology (DLT) built for scale, security, and compliance. Its unique performant hashgraph consensus enables MSS of well over 10k TPS (transactions per second), finality in seconds, and fees at or near zero; any one of which makes it worthy of consideration to build an institutional-grade financial infrastructure.

Unlike community governing chains with no transparency into governance, Hedera has a governing council of global blue chip corporate entities who are publicly committed to the regulated adoption of distributed ledger technology.

Traditional financial messaging standards and Hedera

Hedera’s technology stack supports structured data messaging, real time finality, and governing models specific to regulated industries. While Hedera does not have ISO certification, Hedera’s enterprise positioning, has commercially available pre-built APIs and its transaction value’s functionality and context are consistent with ISO-20022 like compatibility.

Hedera use cases

• Tokenization of real world assets (RWAs)
• Decentralized identity + secure data sharing
• High-volume micropayments (IoT, gaming, streaming)
• Audit-ready sustainable carbon credits

Institutional adoption

• Governing Council Members: Google, IBM, Dell, Boeing, Standard Bank, Deutsche Telekom, and the list could go on.
• Partnerships with payment processors (Worldpay) to make settlements via Hedera automated.
• CBDC sandbox environments in South Korea and UAE have selected Hedera to be the infrastructure for their 2025 projects.
• Dell Technologies launched Project Concord on Hedera to provide trusted data validation for edge computing.

HBAR is one of the only digital assets built from the “ground up” for regulated enterprise adoption and has the speed and transparency needed for messaging with ISO-20022 like capabilities.

Hedera HBAR outlook for 2025

With all the attention on tokenized RWAs and compliant DeFi structures increasingly more sizeable, Hedera’s corporate governance with a sustainably developed architecture place it in the “sweet spot”. HBAR as an asset rarely makes headlines in Consumer Retail, but is powering some of the largest scalable, secure, and institutionally viable applications in the crypto space behind the scenes.

XDC Network (XDC) – Hybrid Blockchain for Trade Finance & Institutional Use

💼 Overview

• Ticker: XDC
• Launched: 2019
• Category: Hybrid Blockchain, Trade Finance, Institutional Payments
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Yes (actively aligned)
• Consensus Mechanism: XDPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake)

XDC Network is a hybrid blockchain that was created by XinFin to be agile, flexible, and scalable for the respective needs of global trade, supply chain finance, and institutional payment systems. What makes XDC stand out is that it is an enterprise-grade private or public blockchain. In addition, XDC Network is becoming a popular choice for businesses that require the privacy of a private blockchain, speed of cross-border transactions, and ability to comply with regulations.

Marrying the usage of utility tokens with the advantages of on-demand service in transactions is the unique proposition of XinFin and the XDC Network. It is in this environment that XDC Network is now being seen within the ISO 20022 compliance projects.

Why is XDC ISO 20022 Compliant

XDC is compliant with the structured messaging standards set forth. The iso 20022 messaging standard was specifically created to provide secure cross-border communication for regulated entities. Furthermore, the XDC Network is hybrid in its design, therefore, is also well-positioned to meet the needs of financial institutions that have to maintain sensitive transactional communications but are required to demonstrate public ledger considerations for verification.

Noteworthy Use Cases

• Trade finance digitization
• Real world asset tokenization (RWAs)
• Private supply chain tracking
• Inter bank settlement & treasury

Institutional Use

• Tradeteq was the first trade finance platform, to use XDC Network, to tokenize and trade invoice backed securities.
• R3 Corda is being utilized by banks, as the world’s leading enterprise blockchain platform is able to integrate with the XDC network for settlement layers.
• Impel employs the XDC Network to provide ISO 20022 financial messaging APIs to banks and fintechs.
• XDC is frequently cited in conversations by the “pro institutional blockchain” supporters, due to its relatively low carbon footprint of the network and observable use cases in ‘real-world’ applications.

Together with a physical business using ISO compliance messaging, XDC is one of the few networks that can achieve the best of both worlds regarding blockchain’s potential to mitigate costs through efficiencies—it only makes sense that it is gaining momentum in traditional finance.

XDC outlook fro 2025

The continued adoption of trade finance and supply chain management on-chain transactions is inevitable. With XDC Network being established as the leading settlement engine for global commerce (combined with its ISO 20022, enterprise integrations, and hybrid capabilities), it remains to be seen if the XDC Network will become a regulated blockchain utility in 2025.

Algorand (ALGO) – Scalable Smart Contracts for Real-World Finance

💼 Overview

• Ticker: ALGO
• Launched: 2019
• Category: Smart Contracts, Payments, CBDCs
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Yes (recognized for institutional use)
• Consensus Mechanism: Pure Proof-of-Stake (PPoS)

Algorand (ALGO) is a next-gen L1 blockchain created by MIT professor and cryptography pioneer, Silvio Micali. As a scalable, transaction fee-less, and near-finality-price arrangement for transaction finality, Algorand is designed for financial applications for national and institutional purposes including central bank digital currencies, tokenized securities, and payment platforms and remittance products.

In 2024 Algorand garnered attention as the infrastructure for the European Central Bank’s (ECB) digital euro pilot—a timely validation of Algorand’s propriety and pedigree as an ISO20022-aligned asset.

Why is Algorand ISO2002-aligned?

Algorand supported secure, structured messaging methods and has partnered with goverments and enterprise for compliant blockchain-based applications. While it does not have formal membership to the ISO20022 standard, it has been accepted in the status of partnership and is regulatory-ready.

Relevant use cases

• Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
• Real world asset tokenization (RWA).
• Cross border microfinance and remittances.
• Carbon credit and ESG tracking systems.

Signals of institucional adoption

• Used by the ECB for euro tokenization pilots.
• Partnered with organizaciones FlightX (private aviation) and HesabPay (financial inclusion Afghanistan.)
• Partnered with Koibanx to digitize government registries in Latin America.
• Powering numerous initiatives around tokenized carbon markets, ESG compliance and inclusive finance.

Algorand uniquely combines academic-leading cryptography with real case adoption—making it one of the most institutionally collaborative LP1 counties acknowledged in ISO20022 style.

Algorand ALGO Outlook for 2025

As central banks explore CBDC applications and markets and government explore compliant when scaling tokenized products and services, Algorand is projecting to be a boardroom economic digital core of compliant digital finance. Along with speed, sustainability, and number of institutional partners, ALGO will emerge as one of the few ISO 20022- aligned inventions.

Cardano (ADA) – Smart Contract Platform With a Focus on Compliance and Identity

💼 Overview

• Ticker: ADA
• Launched: 2017
• Category: Smart Contracts, Identity, Tokenization
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Functionally aligned
• Consensus Mechanism: Ouroboros Proof-of-Stake (PoS)

As the world’s only third generation blockchain, Cardano (ADA) was built by Charles Hoskinson, le cofounder of Ethereum. Cardano strives to ensure the scalability, interoperability, and regulatory compliance of its blockchain. Cardano builds its idea from an academic and research background with a focus on research methodologies that incorporate educational tools, critical approaches to governing protocols, well defined governance policies, formal verification, etc.

Although Cardano is not technically a listed member of ISO 20022, the overall architecture and roadmap of Cardano are indeed pointed towards global markets and generally emerging areas of identity management, tokenized assets and national implementations of blockchain technology.

Why Cardano Is Seen As ISO 20022 Aligned?

Cardano’s amazing metadata framework and transaction labeling system allow it to structure and embed suitably labelled data directly into on-chain transactions, which is important to; the structure and data is compatible with an ISO style of liquidating financial communication, like other corporations pushing ISO 20022 design standards. Cardano is also focused on digital identities and regulated finance tools that place it into the mix as a viable regulatory compliant Web3 application.

Important Use Cases

• Decentralized identity in a secure manner with Atala PRISM
• Private transactions in a secure manner using the Midnight sidechain
• Development of smart contract dApps as tools for finance and education
• Create regulated, tokenized, real world assets like NFTs, as well as land and academic credentials

Institutional Adoption

• Cardano was selected in partnership with national governments in Ethiopia and Georgia to trial their decentralized digital, national digital ID platform
• World Mobile selected Cardano for their project powered by blockchain in developing areas
• ADA was included in US Federal pilot testing for a Crypto Reserve starting in 2025 with Ripple and Stellar
• ADA has repeatedly been mentioned in institutional ETF filings as investors continue to place faith and conviction into the emergence of Cardano’s new financial ecosystem of tools and applications

Charles Hoskinson has pointed out that the next wave of crypto and digital ID adoption will be at the behest of regulated platforms – Cardano was built with that idea from the beginning and fosters engagements here with new regulated financial tools.

Cardano ADA outlook for 2025

As regulation progresses, Cardano is embroidered in careful, prudent and compliant decisions about scaling and engaging in bonds/identity based finance. The general idea and organization of ADA and the uses of Cardano’s platform have positioned ADA as one of the most dynamic financial services systems as an ISO 20022 aligned platform. Independent of position, continued engagements in developed and emerging economies, as an established blockchain platform in a regulated blockchain market, ADA is beginning to seen less as a speculative token of financial services and more as positional regulated infrastructure.

Quant (QNT) – The Interoperability Layer for Institutional Blockchain Adoption

💼 Overview

• Ticker: QNT
• Launched: 2018
• Category: Interoperability, Digital Assets, CBDCs
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Compliance-ready & enterprise-integrated
• Consensus Mechanism: Uses existing Layer 1s via Overledger (not a blockchain)

Quant Network is in a unique position to drive blockchain adoption—not as a Layer 1—but with the blockchain agnostic operating system called Overledger. Overledger allows government agencies, banks and enterprises to build on existing blockchains and transact between networks with regulatory compliance for things like ISO20022 and take advantage of other regulatory frameworks.

Quant is a leader in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) development and tokenized asset settlement infrastructure and is often referred to as the “Swift of Blockchain.”

Why Quant is Aligned with ISO 20022

Quant is built into ISO 20022 via LACChain ( a global financial use case initiative supported by Inter-American Development Bank). Quant has also participated in cross border settlement pilots with central banks like the Bank of England and U.S. Federal Reserve. In addition, Quant was one of the only platforms that seamlessly allows integration from a legacy system to Blockchain without a complete overhaul to existing infrastructure/platforms.

Significant Use Cases

• Cross-chain CBDC interoperability
• Regulated asset issuance and tokenization
• Bring legacy banks into DLT networks
• KYC, AML and compliance layer APIs.

Institutional Adoption

• The Bank of England CBDC Project
• Pilot integrations with LACChain and U.S. Fed
• Provides enterprise-grade tokenization frameworks across entities with existing banking integration.
• Partnerships with Nexi, SIA and multiple governments throughout Europe and Latin America (shows traction).

Quant outlook for 2025

Quant is becoming a key layer for financial messaging and regulatory compliance. The adoption of CBDC’s and tokenized banking is still increasing and the position of QNT as a spearhead between blockchains and banks is near absolute.

IOTA – Feeless, Scalable Payments for IoT and Compliance-Driven Use Cases

💼 Overview

• Ticker: IOTA
• Launched: 2015
• Category: Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities, Data Integrity
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Aligned with structured data protocols
• Consensus Mechanism: Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) – The Tangle

IOTA is a genuinely fascinating cryptocurrency project, utilizing a fundamentally different structure. Rather than a blockchain, it is a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). As a leading provider of zero-fee microtransactions, entity-to-entity secure data exchange, and high-speed communications between devices on the internet, IOTA’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is specifically being applied to numerous challenges in smart cities, supply chain, and environmental data reporting.

Furthermore, IOTA has a robust natural fit with ISO 20022, structured messaging, machine-readable and real-time data, and a data compliance approach.

ISO 20022 with IOTA

IOTA’s infrastructure accommodates transactions with metadata rich payloads, that can be readily mapped to ISO20022 constructs. IOTA’s guaranteed transaction validation topology provides institutional level auditability and data validation, which are critical requirements for future regulatory compliance systems.

Key Use Cases

• Feeless IoT micropayments
• Countering climate & environmental data essentially (carbon tracking, etc.)
• Digital identity management for smart cities
• Secure data for all things logistics, mobility, and industrial work.

Institutional Adoption

• Dell Technologies is pursuing an IOTA pilot for secure edge-computing validation (Project Alvarium)
• TradeMark East Africa and UN Habitat are using IOTA for trust and logistics
• Multiple smart cities pilots in Europe and Middle East.
• IOTA Foundation, closely aligned with regulators and nonprofits, validates the relevance using the relationships described above.

IOTA outlook for 2025

IOTA is positioned uniquely to be a serious player in feeless and data rich FinTech dapps and smart contracts, particularly in supply chains and logistics, and industries that have a M2M or IoT based economic model. There was a strong momentum for engaging in and adopting ISO 20022 standards, and this structured messaging is a natural fit to comply to any future regulators’ digital ecosystems.

VeChain (VET) – Supply Chain Blockchain Built for Enterprise Integration

💼 Overview

• Ticker: VET
• Launched: 2016
• Category: Supply Chain, Enterprise dApps, Tokenization
• ISO 20022 Compliant: ✅ Enterprise-aligned for global trade compliance
• Consensus Mechanism: Proof-of-Authority (PoA)

VeChain works with many companies globally, and there are many companies with ties to VeChain. Our area of focus is supply chain visibility, ESG compliance and enterprise blockchain implementations. The focus on organizational blockchain without tie of a specific industry is interesting from a conceptual perspective.

VeChain has two tokens (VETO & VTHO) which act as value transfer (VET) and gas (XOS) more so than partnership first / only. VeChain has combined integrations and partnerships with some large and diverse brands like Walmart China, BMW, & PwC.

VeChain’s agreement for transacting supports metadata based payloads making it more conducive for ISO 20022 style structured financial and supply messaging.

Why is VeChain ISO 20022 Compatible?

Although ViChain does not certify the ISO 20022 specifications, it does allow for structured, auditable communication to vendors, regulators and auditors. Therefore, for working as maximum ISO 20022-compatible ViChain should be considered for supply chain formalities (movement documentation), customs and trade documents.

Key Usecases

• Tracing food, luxury goods, drugs
• Tokenizing carbon credits and ESG report
• Customs and regulation reporting
• Smart labels, labelled and IoT device embedded

Institutional Engagement

• PwC China, Walmart China, BMW and Shanghai Gas are using ViChain’s infrastructure
• Combination with DNV so that they can inspect on-chain storage chain certifications
• Involved with the government of Cyprus on public service modernization
• Validating carbon and supply chain source reporting using blockchain, within various EU ESG Grid

Furture (2025)

With the rise of ESG standards increasing, and the complexity of global supply chains calling for even further real-time tracking and audibility, VeChain is well positioned (as the ISO aligned enterprise layer) to afford compliance, tracking and trade. Overall, VET is not a financial token but part of digitalizing global commerce.

The Importance of ISO 20022 Crypto to the Future of Finance

The transition to ISO 20022 messaging standards by global finance represents an unparalleled emphasis on the bridge between traditional banking and digital assets. In the coming years cryptocurrencies that can be classified in this standard through either membership, compliant infrastructure, or structured data—will become valuable assets in their own right.

These cryptocurrencies that are establishing compliant infrastructure for products like CBDCs, cross-border payments, and tokenized trade finance, will are not merely speculative investments but key building blocks for the next generation of financial rails.

ISO 20022 Crypto Investment Overview (2025)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)