Digital asset custody isn’t just a backend service— it’s the confidence factor that transforms hesitation into action. For institutions, secure and regulated digital asset custody isn’t optional. It’s the difference between stepping boldly into digital finance or watching opportunities slip by from the sidelines.
Institutions are seeking a digital asset custody solution that delivers the same robust services and protections they’ve long relied on for traditional assets: impenetrable security, seamless trading access, and comprehensive risk management capabilities.
With 10% of the world’s assets expected to be tokenized by 2030, we’re witnessing the construction of today’s financial infrastructure. The banks that are establishing robust crypto custody frameworks now are the first to market digital asset services, while those that wait are left playing catch-up.
What does institutional-grade digital asset custody look like when it’s deployed at scale? It looks like Ripple Custody: enabling institutions to transform high-level digital asset potential into operational reality across three critical use cases: core safekeeping, stablecoin issuance, and governance.
The Foundation: Core Safekeeping
Every custody strategy begins with one fundamental responsibility: secure storage of the private keys that unlock access to digital assets. From tokenized real estate and treasuries to stablecoins and traditional cryptocurrencies, this core safekeeping capability is the bedrock of institutional digital asset services.
For financial institutions, this foundational capability addresses the most fundamental risk in engaging with digital assets: the permanent loss or unauthorized access of private keys that control potentially billions of dollars in assets.
Demand for institutional-grade security is climbing as banks lean into digital asset strategies, launch stablecoin initiatives, and serve clients who increasingly expect access to use digital assets for payments, hedging, and portfolio diversification. And with crypto assets under custody projected to reach $16 trillion by 2030, meeting this rising demand requires a custody solution that prioritizes security while balancing utility.
Institutions need a system designed for security, scalability, and compliance. That’s where Ripple Custody comes in, delivering bank-grade infrastructure, robust compliance frameworks, high reliability, and flexible deployment options including:
Software as a Service (SaaS): a secure, scalable, cloud-hosted platform for institutions to manage and store their digital assets without building their own complex infrastructure
On-premise: institutions build and maintain their own infrastructure, retaining complete ownership, governance, and control of data and processes— ideal for strict risk, compliance, and regulatory requirements
Core safekeeping might not capture headlines, but breaches and losses certainly do. Every blockchain innovation, every tokenized asset, every digital financial service depends on the underlying assurance that private keys are completely protected.
For financial institutions, this is where it all starts. The ability to offer digital asset services like trading, tokenization, and crypto-enabled payments is dependent on the secure custody of private keys.
The Expansion: Stablecoin Issuance
Financial institutions are increasingly looking to issue stablecoins or manage significant reserves as part of their payments, remittance, and collateral operations. But this requires more than just speed and efficiency; it requires institutional-grade custody that banks can stake their reputation on. Stablecoin innovation is only as strong as the security infrastructure that backs it.
Stablecoins have evolved from a crypto curiosity to critical financial infrastructure. With new regulatory frameworks taking shape globally, both traditional institutions and fintech innovators are exploring stablecoin issuance as their strategic entry point into the crypto space.
Ripple Custody offers customers the ability to mint, burn, and manage stablecoins, seamlessly integrated with the XRP Ledger or any EVM-compatible blockchain. This isn’t just custody, it’s complete life-cycle management for stablecoins as digital payment instruments to:
reduce settlement time;
support collateralized finance use cases;
unlock new revenue streams through issuance and transaction fees.
This capability supports banks in meeting the growing demand for faster, more reliable digital payment options. Real-world deployment is already underway: Société Générale FORGE issued its EURO-backed stablecoin EURCV on the XRP Ledger using Ripple Custody, while BDACS in South Korea custodies Ripple USD (RLUSD), Ripple’s stablecoin designed to support institutional payment solutions.
The Orchestration Engine: Governance
Beyond safekeeping and payments lies a transformation that touches every aspect of digital asset management: the modernization of back-office operations and compliance, powered by blockchain technology.
Back-office operations are often slow, fragmented, and manual. Settlements can take days, reconciliations demand heavy manual oversight, and reporting lags market reality. These limitations create operational inefficiencies and competitive disadvantages for institutions operating in fast-moving capital markets.
As tokenization of financial assets expands, institutions can dramatically simplify their value chains with blockchain technology, replacing complex, fragmented systems with unified, automated processes that operate continuously.
Ripple Custody enables this transformation by serving as a comprehensive orchestration platform that integrates with both public and private blockchains, distributed ledgers and core banking systems to automate critical processes—settlements, reconciliations, reporting—while maintaining the highest security and compliance standards. The platform also seamlessly integrates tokenization, custody, trading, and Web3 functionality under a single, trusted control framework.
With Ripple Custody, institutions can configure governance policies and workflows to their exact requirements, ensuring alignment with regulatory demands and internal controls. For clients looking to deploy quickly, Ripple Custody also provides pre-defined, best-practice policies to enable a rapid start, with flexibility to fine-tune or fully customize at a later date.
The benefits are significant: near real-time settlement; reduced operational costs; minimized counterparty risks. These benefits unlock scale and trust in capital markets by automating governance and risk management onchain.
Building the Infrastructure of Digital Finance
Core safekeeping, stablecoin issuance, and the automation of back-office operations are just a few of the many use cases that Ripple Custody supports. As the market continues to evolve, so will Ripple Custody—delivering the trust, compliance-focused features, and flexibility needed for institutions to lead in this new era of finance.
Learn more about why Ripple Custody is the preferred solution for leading banks across more than 15 countries worldwide.
