Ripple and Settlemint have formed a strategic partnership to give regulated financial institutions an integrated system for issuing, holding, settling, and managing tokenized assets.
Announced Sept. 1, the partnership connects Ripple Custody with Settlemint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform (DALP). The combined system enables institutions to manage asset issuance, compliance, custody, settlement, and servicing through a single governed platform.
“Financial institutions across Asia Pacific are putting digital assets to work. They are asking how to do more without stitching together separate solutions for custody, issuance and governance,” Fiona Murray, Ripple’s managing director for Asia Pacific, said, adding:
“This partnership gives them the foundation to roll out digital assets and future-proof them from there: Ripple Custody to hold and govern the asset, and Settlemint to manage its entire lifecycle.”
The integration is designed to close the operational gap between safeguarding digital assets and managing them after issuance. DALP provides controls for issuance, compliance, settlement, and servicing, while Ripple Custody manages how institutions store and control those assets.
According to the announcement, bringing these functions together on one platform can reduce the need to assemble services from multiple vendors and help address reconciliation gaps that arise when institutions use separate systems.
What Ripple and Settlemint’s Integration Means for Financial Institutions
Ripple Custody provides the security, governance, and compliance infrastructure needed to hold digital assets in institutional environments. Ripple’s custody expansion through Securosys, Figment, Chainalysis, and Palisade added capabilities for key management, transaction screening, wallets, and staking aimed at banks and regulated enterprises.
Institutional custody systems are increasingly becoming control layers rather than stand-alone storage products. Ripple has positioned its custody infrastructure as a foundation for payments, tokenization, staking, and treasury management as banks move digital asset initiatives from limited trials into production systems that require audit trails and approval controls.
Settlemint extends this framework beyond asset protection by managing the processes surrounding a token throughout its lifecycle. Real-world asset tokenization can involve legal structuring, custody, compliance, distribution, servicing, and redemption, making token creation only one part of a regulated financial product.
Asia Launch Could Support Broader Institutional Tokenization
The integrated offering is initially available in Asia, with plans to expand into additional markets as institutional demand grows. Ripple already participates in live tokenization projects, including Aviva Investors’ tokenized liquidity fund share class on the XRP Ledger. The project combines blockchain-based ownership records with established regulatory, custody, and investor-protection frameworks.
Ripple’s earlier acquisition of digital asset custody and wallet provider Palisade also expanded its ability to support scalable wallet deployments and rapid transactions. Adam Popat, CEO of Settlemint, said:
“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.”
The partnership’s potential market extends beyond cryptocurrency trading to the infrastructure required to issue and service traditional financial assets. Boston Consulting Group estimates that tokenized real-world assets could reach $88 trillion by 2035, representing roughly 16% of global investable assets under its progressive scenario.
Under its rapid-expansion scenario, the consulting firm projects that bank profits could fall by about 30% compared with a market without digital asset adoption.
