The financial messaging standard ISO 20022 is gaining attention, but surprisingly few cryptocurrencies are compliant with it. Bitcoin and Ethereum are not compatible with this standard. Both were created in 2009 and 2015, respectively, and existed long before ISO 20022 was announced.

Interestingly, the leading major cryptocurrency compliant with ISO 20022 is XRP. This Ripple coin, created in 2012, was intentionally developed with the ability to adapt to the standard in mind. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, Ripple is a private company that effectively guides the development of the XRP blockchain.

Stellar’s XLM is also ISO 20022 compatible, having originated as a decentralized spin-off of Ripple. In addition, it is said that a total of eight cryptocurrencies—Cardano’s ADA, Hedera’s HBAR, Algorand’s ALGO, Quantum’s QNT, and IOTA and XDC, among others—are compatible with this standard.

ISO 20022 created by SWIFT is a standard that harmonizes communications between different financial institutions and enables automated communications between systems. The migration began in 2022 and needs to be completed by 2025. It will replace the current messaging system used by SWIFT, the world’s most important interbank settlement system, which has been in operation for more than 50 years.

XRP’s movement is drawing particular attention. As of October 2024, it was below $0.6, but afterward it surpassed $3.2. For the first time in seven years, it broke above $3, and it is currently trading around $1.46. It hasn’t reached the all-time high of $3.8 in January 2018, but the element of being ISO 20022 compliant may be supporting this upward trend.

ADA is also attracting attention as an ISO 20022-compliant cryptocurrency, but it is currently trading around $0.28, still far from its 2021 high of $3.1. XLM is at $0.17, and HBAR is at $0.10. Although each coin’s current price level differs, their compliance with this standard could hold long-term value.

ALGO and IOTA have struggled in recent years, falling by -85% and -90% or more from their all-time highs, respectively. However, they have shown signs of a modest recovery since the beginning of 2025. Meanwhile, QNT is down -72% and XDC is at -30%.

As adoption of ISO 20022 progresses, the group of cryptocurrencies compliant with this standard could play an important role in future integration of financial systems. How the market evaluates this factor will likely be a major driver of these coins’ mid-term performance.