Ripple and SettleMint announced a strategic partnership on Sept. 1 that combines institutional digital asset custody with tools for issuing and managing tokenized assets.
Summary
- Ripple and SettleMint partnered to combine institutional custody with tokenized asset lifecycle management capabilities regionally.
- The initial offering targets regulated financial institutions across Asia Pacific before possible expansion elsewhere globally.
- SettleMint DALP manages issuance, compliance, settlement, custody and servicing through one governed platform for institutions.
- Ripple Custody uses configurable controls, approval workflows and institutional key management infrastructure for assets securely.
- The partnership announcement provided no named customers, implementation dates, pricing or transaction volumes initially publicly.
The companies said the initial offering would target regulated financial institutions in Asia Pacific. It integrates Ripple Custody with SettleMint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform, known as DALP, according to the official announcement.
The integration is intended to give banks, financial market operators and other regulated institutions one foundation for custody, issuance, compliance, settlement and post-issuance servicing. Ripple and SettleMint said they had begun offering the combination in Asia, although they did not identify participating institutions.
Ripple Custody will secure assets managed through DALP
Ripple Custody provides infrastructure for holding and transferring cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets. The platform supports configurable access controls, policy enforcement and approval workflows intended for institutional environments.
Ripple describes the product as self-custody technology that institutions can install within their own infrastructure. In that deployment model, the institution retains control of its private keys instead of outsourcing control to Ripple.
The platform supports hardware security modules and multi-party computation for key management. Ripple also lists FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certification, ISO 27001 certification and SOC 2 Type II compliance among its security credentials on its official custody page.
SettleMint’s DALP covers another part of the process. It allows institutions to design, issue and manage tokenized financial products while applying compliance, permissioning and governance rules throughout an asset’s lifecycle.
Connecting the two products is intended to reduce the need for separate custody, token creation, settlement and asset-servicing providers. Whether it removes every external integration will depend on each institution’s regulatory structure, chosen blockchain and existing technology.
SettleMint integration covers more than token issuance
Tokenization involves more than creating a blockchain token representing a bond, fund, security or other asset. Institutions must also control investor eligibility, ownership records, corporate actions, transfers, settlement and redemptions.
SettleMint said DALP acts as a governed control layer for those processes. The platform covers issuance, compliance, custody coordination, settlement and servicing after a token launches.
Under the partnership, Ripple Custody handles the storage and governance of digital assets while DALP manages the broader lifecycle. The companies said this arrangement could help institutions move from tests into production without assembling multiple disconnected products.
The announcement did not disclose which blockchain networks the joint service will support. It also did not state that institutions must use the XRP Ledger, XRP or Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. The partnership therefore does not establish direct demand for XRP.
No customer names, contract values, projected revenue or production dates were announced. Claims about faster deployment and lower operational complexity remain company expectations until institutions publicly document live use.
Ripple expands its institutional custody network
The SettleMint agreement follows several additions to Ripple Custody. Ripple acquired wallet and custody company Palisade in November 2025 to add wallet-as-a-service infrastructure for payments, treasury operations and high-frequency transactions.
Ripple later announced partnerships with Securosys and Figment in February. Securosys added cloud-based hardware security module support, while Figment introduced institutional staking capabilities. A Chainalysis integration added transaction monitoring and compliance tools.
These services address different parts of institutional asset management. Palisade supports wallet operations, Securosys provides key protection, Figment handles staking and Chainalysis supports risk screening. SettleMint now adds a system for managing tokenized assets after issuance.
Ripple has also started testing its custody infrastructure with financial institutions in Asia. In related coverage, crypto.news reported that Kyobo Life began testing tokenized Korean government bond settlement using Ripple Custody.
That project remains a pilot and has no disclosed transaction volume or commercial launch date. It nevertheless provides a regional example of the type of bond lifecycle that the SettleMint integration could support.
Asia Pacific becomes the first deployment market
Ripple and SettleMint said the combined offering had started in Asia and could expand to other regions as institutional demand develops. They did not provide a country-by-country rollout schedule.
Asia Pacific already contains several regulated tokenization programs involving banks, asset managers and market infrastructure providers. Singapore has supported institutional experiments covering tokenized funds, stablecoin settlement and programmable collateral.
As previously reported, DBS paired a tokenized money market fund with RLUSD through an arrangement involving Franklin Templeton and Ripple. Future phases were expected to examine lending and repurchase transactions using tokenized fund units as collateral.
Ripple and SettleMint cited a Boston Consulting Group forecast to explain the market opportunity. The May 2026 report estimated that tokenized real-world assets could reach $88 trillion by 2035 under its progressive scenario, equal to roughly 16% of global investable assets.
The $88 trillion figure is a forecast rather than a current market measurement or company-confirmed target. BCG estimated that publicly visible tokenized real-world assets were worth approximately $30 billion when it produced the report.
The next measurable development will be the disclosure of participating financial institutions, supported networks and production deployments. Until those details emerge, the agreement establishes a technical and commercial integration rather than evidence of completed institutional issuance.
