XRP 400% Surge and ISO 20022 Cryptocurrency: Financial Standards Transforming the Cryptocurrency Market

The recent cryptocurrency market is undergoing a major turning point. Especially with payment-focused cryptocurrencies like XRP gaining attention, the background is not just speculative enthusiasm but the adoption of international financial standards such as iso20022. This article reveals the phenomenon of the revival of old coins that is shaking the market and the fundamental role played by the iso20022 standard.

Structural Shift in the Cryptocurrency Market Under the Trump Administration

From late 2024 to early 2025, unexpected phenomena occurred in the crypto asset market. Projects once called “old coins,” such as XRP, XLM, HBAR, and XVG, began to appear on the rising list one after another. XRP, which surged over 400% in just one month, reached a market cap surpassing Solana (SOL).

Market participants were filled with surprise and confusion. Investors who had long held these old coins finally thought it was time to sell, only to witness their value suddenly being re-evaluated.

Why did this shift happen? On the surface, it looks like sector rotation, but fundamentally, it is different. With the birth of the Trump administration, Wall Street began re-evaluating the role of cryptocurrencies, especially digital assets with payment functions. Bitcoin breaking through $100,000 in less than a year and the influx of institutional investors into the crypto market naturally increased interest in cryptocurrencies with payment use cases.

What is iso20022: Innovation in International Financial Standards

The reason XRP and XLM are attracting attention together is that these are not just meme coins but are compliant with the international financial standard called “iso20022.” So, what exactly is iso20022?

iso20022 (Official Name: Financial Services - Universal Financial Industry Message Scheme) is an international financial communication standard established by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) in 2004. Developed long before Bitcoin’s inception, this standard serves as a global messaging infrastructure covering multiple financial sectors such as payments, securities, trade, card payments, and foreign exchange.

Imagine the traditional international remittance process. When sending $1,000 to a friend abroad, the money passes through multiple layers. Banks send payment instructions in their own formats, SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) converts them into its own format, central banks process them in another format, and finally, the receiving bank re-translates them into a format it can understand.

Just like information gets lost each time it is transmitted in a telephone game, this multi-layered conversion process can easily result in the loss of critical information such as payment purpose or invoice number. Since each financial institution speaks its own “dialect,” multiple translation layers are indispensable.

iso20022 fundamentally solves this problem. It enables all financial institutions to communicate in a common “language.” Information that was previously limited to about 140 characters can now be extended to 9,000 characters, and data structures are fully standardized. More importantly, it allows machines to process data directly. It has evolved from telegram-like Morse code communication to sending structured emails.

Cryptocurrency Projects Supporting iso20022

There are many recognized crypto projects related to iso20022 in the market.

XRP (Ripple) is the most prominent project. As the only cryptocurrency to have obtained official iso20022 certification, RippleNet fully integrates this standard. By providing real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems, it has built partnerships with over 200 financial institutions and is conducting interoperability tests with SWIFT.

XLM (Stellar) also holds an important position. Although not officially certified, it utilizes iso20022-compliant message formats and has established partnerships with over 350 banks through a strategic alliance with MoneyGram.

ADA (Cardano) supports iso20022 through its Atala PRISM ID solution and is participating in government-level financial projects in Africa.

Other projects include QNT (Quant) with its Overledger platform, ALGO (Algorand) with its layer 1 solution, HBAR (Hedera) with its high-throughput distributed ledger, IOTA with Tangle technology, and XDC (XDC Network) with solutions for trade finance, each approaching iso20022 compliance in different ways.

Why Execution Power Matters More Than Legitimacy

In discussions about iso20022, claims are often made that “XRP is the only officially certified iso20022 cryptocurrency.” However, in essence, iso20022 is an open technical standard, and there is no so-called “official certification” mechanism. Just as the HTTP protocol of the internet, multiple projects support this standard at various technical levels.

What matters is not the presence or absence of “formal certification” but actual execution power. XRP has demonstrated its track record in cross-border remittances through RippleNet, XLM has achieved deployment in multiple countries including Argentina through collaboration with MoneyGram, and Cardano has shown results through its project implementations in Africa.

Rather than evaluating projects based on short-term speculation, it is crucial to understand over time whether the problems they aim to solve are truly feasible and whether they have competitive strength in the market. Investing short-term speculative funds into long-term stories can increase the risk of market penalties.

The rise of cryptocurrencies compliant with the international standard iso20022 indicates more than just a market cycle; it suggests a transformation of financial infrastructure. Recognizing the true value within this context will be key to future investment decisions.