Conduit Secures $36M to Challenge SWIFT’s Cross-Border Payments Monopoly with Stablecoins

Another day, another fintech startup taking a swing at the banking dinosaurs. Conduit just pocketed $36 million to turbocharge its stablecoin-powered alternative to SWIFT’s creaky cross-border system.

Why it matters: While legacy finance still settles transactions at the speed of fax machines, crypto rails move money in seconds—without the 3-day ’processing’ window that magically justifies those fat correspondent banking fees.

The play: By leveraging dollar-pegged tokens, Conduit bypasses the correspondent banking cartel entirely. No more waiting for Nostro accounts to reconcile, no more opaque FX spreads—just programmable money moving as fast as the blockchain confirms it.

Reality check: SWIFT won’t die quietly (those 11,000 member institutions love their gravy train). But with $36M in fresh powder, Conduit’s about to test whether banks will finally adopt innovation—or just keep pretending to ’explore blockchain solutions’ between martini lunches.