Key Takeaways:
Ripple and SettleMint launched a unified platform for banks to issue, custody, and manage tokenized assets in Asia Pacific, targeting an $88 trillion market by 2035.
"Financial institutions across Asia Pacific are putting digital assets to work and asking how to do more without stitching together separate solutions for custody, issuance and governance," Fiona Murray, managing director for Asia Pacific at Ripple, said.
The partnership, announced Sept. 1, integrates Ripple Custody with SettleMint's Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform (DALP), giving regulated institutions a single system for custody, issuance, compliance, settlement, and servicing. Boston Consulting Group projects tokenized real-world assets could reach $88 trillion by 2035 and estimates banks that fail to adapt could see profits fall by as much as 30% over that horizon.
The companies plan to extend the offering to other markets as institutional demand develops. Ripple has spent roughly $4 billion on cumulative M&A and corporate venture investments in crypto infrastructure, including the acquisition of wallet provider Palisade and partnerships with Securosys and Figment.
The platform targets banks, market infrastructure operators, and sovereign entities. SettleMint's composable DALP already runs in production and pre-production deployments across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific for banks, market operators, and governments, according to the company.
"Global capital markets are moving fully on-chain, and that shift only works when digital asset custody and lifecycle management operate as one system rather than two," Adam Popat, CEO of SettleMint, said.
Ripple's broader institutional push extends beyond this partnership. The company piloted its RLUSD stablecoin in Singapore's central bank sandbox with supply chain finance firm Unloq in March. Its XRP Ledger also featured in a cross-border pilot with JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Ondo Finance that settled tokenized US Treasuries in under five seconds.
XRP traded at $1.37 as of Sept. 1, down about 2% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The token has gained roughly 26% over the past month, supported by record spot ETF inflows that surpassed $1.66 billion cumulatively, and CME futures open interest overtook Binance as the largest XRP futures venue.
The partnership deepens Ripple's presence in key Asia Pacific markets including South Korea, Singapore, and Japan. Assets issued via SettleMint won't necessarily use XRP, but the deal strengthens Ripple's role in financial institutions' tokenization efforts.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
