Banks move trillions across borders every day using systems built in the 1970s. The pipes are old, the costs are high, and transfers that should take seconds drag on for days.
XRP is a cryptocurrency designed for these transfers. The XRP Ledger is the blockchain network it runs on – a public, decentralized system that can settle transactions in 3-5 seconds. Ripple is the company that builds payment products on top of this ledger, selling those products to banks and financial institutions.
What XRP Does on the XRP Ledger
Banks need to move money between countries. Normally they park huge amounts of cash in foreign accounts just to have it ready when a transfer comes through. XRP fixes this.
When a bank uses Ripple’s payment system, XRP acts as the bridge. Money converts to XRP, zips across the XRP Ledger in 3 to 5 seconds, then converts to whatever currency lands on the other side. No parked cash needed. Ripple Payments, the Ripple software suite, moved $1.3 trillion in Q2 2025 at fees around 0.15%. SWIFT, the old system, costs over 5% and takes days. Every transaction on the ledger burns a tiny amount of XRP as a fee, about 0.00001 XRP per action. Sounds like nothing, but it adds up across millions of transfers, especially in high volume corridors like Asia Pacific remittances. This burn mechanism stops spam and keeps the network clean.
There’s more happening beyond payments. Each wallet on the ledger needs 10 to 20 XRP locked up as a reserve to activate features. Market makers park millions in XRP to provide liquidity during peak trading hours, creating natural buy pressure. People are using XRP in DeFi protocols too, lending it out or farming yield at 4 to 8% APY.
The ledger itself evolves through community proposals. XRP holders vote on upgrades through their wallets, stuff like automated market makers or privacy features. Institutions push for what they need, regular users push back, and the network adapts.
Over 300 financial institutions now connect through RippleNet. Local remittance shops, regional banks, global players. They’re all tapping into the same rails because the alternative is maintaining their own expensive infrastructure.
BNY Mellon Acts as Prime Custodian
BNY Mellon manages $53.1 trillion in assets. That’s not a typo. In July 2025, Ripple picked them as the primary custodian for U.S. operations. They now hold XRP and RLUSD stablecoin for institutions and handle the safekeeping that makes Ripple Payments work for cross border transfers.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Tokenized treasuries and bonds are settling on the XRP Ledger now, and BNY provides the compliant custody behind it. Picture a $1 billion treasury issuance generating thousands of daily settlements. Each one pulls XRP liquidity from the network. Institutions moving these funds through Ripple Payments burn base fees and tap into liquidity pools with every transaction.
BNY’s involvement matters because of what it signals. When a Wall Street institution that size agrees to custody XRP for actual transfers, not just speculation, other institutions pay attention. They see regulatory approval baked into the relationship. The risk calculation changes.
More institutions joining means more volume through Ripple Payments. More volume means higher liquidity requirements. Higher liquidity requirements mean more XRP getting locked up in pools and reserves. The cycle feeds itself.
CIBC Expands Alliance
CIBC has been working with Ripple since 2016. In July 2025, they deepened that relationship by investing growth capital in Ripple Operations, a company building crew success technology for the maritime industry.
The platform handles corporate payments and retail transfers for the shipping world. Ships need to pay crews across dozens of countries, often in different currencies, sometimes in remote ports with limited banking infrastructure. These are exactly the kind of high volume, cross border flows that create XRP liquidity needs.
CIBC cares about compliance and their involvement pushes XRPL upgrades that address compliance requirements. When proposals come up for things like better transaction monitoring or privacy features that still allow regulatory oversight, XRP holders vote on them. Banks like CIBC want those features before they scale up usage.
Banks don’t invest in platforms they’re just testing. CIBC’s nine year relationship with Ripple, now expanding into specialized sectors like maritime payments, shows they’re building for scale. They see the network handling global payment flows long term. More banks making that same calculation means more institutional commitment to the infrastructure. That commitment requires liquidity, reserves, and ongoing XRP usage across the network.
SBI Holdings Drives Asia-Pacific Flows
SBI Remit in Japan uses Ripple technology for remittances to Southeast Asia, handling billions yearly through Ripple Payments with JPY-PHP and JPY-INR corridors. They swap fiat to XRP for instant bridging, then settle in local currency.
Remittances build steady XRP demand. Peak seasons see over 100,000 daily transfers, drawing from large liquidity pools. SBI holds XRP reserves to stake its position.
This setup places XRP in Japan’s fintech world, where SBI shapes regional standards through XRPL governance. Groups like SBI pick Ripple for its reliability, and their volume shows XRP handles real pressure.
Tranglo Links Southeast Asian Markets
Malaysia-based Tranglo, part-owned by Ripple, enables Ripple Payments across Asia and the Middle East for 1.5 million users. They grew Ripple Payments in 2025 to MYR-THB and MYR-VND routes, focusing on gig economy payouts and e-commerce settlements.
Daily transfers burn XRP fees and use liquidity for $200 million monthly volume. Tranglo keeps pools scaling with growth. Their work on underserved markets pushes XRPL features like micropayments, where XRP holders vote on efficiency changes.
Tranglo proves Ripple scales to growing economies, making XRP a tool for broad finance.
Ripple Prime Changes Institutional Brokerage
Ripple finished its $1.25 billion buy of Hidden Road on October 24, 2025, starting Ripple Prime as the first crypto-native global multi-asset prime broker. The entity gives institutional clients clearing, financing, and market access across foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income, and digital assets.
Ripple Prime handles clearing, financing, and FX for digital assets and fiat, with XRP key for settlements. Institutions trade tokenized assets, and Ripple Payments manages cross-chain liquidity. A $500 million portfolio trade could need millions in XRP.
Prime clients provide liquidity, locking XRP across pools. Ripple Prime adds privacy tools for compliant trades, leading XRPL amendments that XRP holders approve. This buy solidifies Ripple’s institutional tools, setting XRP as default for big flows.
GTreasury Handles Corporate Treasury Operations
Ripple bought GTreasury for $1 billion on October 16, 2025, entering the multi-trillion dollar corporate treasury market. GTreasury brings over 40 years of experience supporting treasury for brands like American Airlines, Goodyear, and Volvo.
GTreasury’s platform processes $12.5 trillion in payments volume. Corporates forecast cash flows and run Ripple Payments for $1 billion daily settlements.
Each payout pulls XRP liquidity. Users pay fees in XRP for premium features, placing it in enterprise tools. Corporate users shape XRPL’s payment protocols through governance input.
GTreasury connects back-office systems to blockchain, showing XRP fits Fortune 500 work.
South Korean Custody Through BDACS Partnership
BDACS started institutional custody for XRP in August 2025, after a February partnership with Ripple. The firm gives secure, compliant custody to back Ripple’s blockchain work under South Korea’s rules.
The tie aligns with South Korea’s Financial Services Commission plan to grow institutional digital asset use. BDACS supports XRP and RLUSD with Ripple Custody, a platform for institutions to store and manage digital assets safely.
Santander and American Express Grow Integration
Big financial groups like Santander, SBI Holdings, and American Express strengthened Ripple partnerships, using XRP’s speed in cross-border corridors. Santander runs Ripple’s technology in One Pay FX, with a 40% rise in Ripple Payments use during Q2 2025.
These partnerships shift from tests to full use, managing millions in daily settlements.
Standard Chartered and Middle East Growth
Ripple continues working with Standard Chartered, targeting emerging markets where the impact is most visible. Banks in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America face remittance costs that can hit 8 to 12% per transaction. The banking infrastructure in these regions often can’t handle the volume or speed that populations need.
Standard Chartered operates in over 50 markets, many of them exactly where traditional payment rails break down. Their partnership with Ripple focuses on corridors where people are sending money home to family, where businesses need to pay suppliers across borders, and where every percentage point in fees matters.
These markets generate massive payment volumes. African remittances alone exceeded $100 billion in 2024. When banks in these regions adopt Ripple Payments, they’re not experimenting. They’re replacing systems that actively hurt their customers with high costs and slow settlement times.
The liquidity requirements for these corridors are substantial. Peak remittance periods around holidays can see 3 to 5 times normal volume. Banks need XRP reserves deep enough to handle those spikes without the settlement failures that plague correspondent banking networks.
Standard Chartered’s scale in emerging markets gives Ripple access to payment flows that dwarf what most crypto projects will ever touch. Real people, real money, real problems getting solved.
RLUSD Stablecoin Boosts Ecosystem Growth
Ripple released RLUSD to the public on December 17, 2024, after New York Department of Financial Services approval and is backed fully with U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government bonds, and cash equivalents, holding a steady $1 price.
After launch, RLUSD listed first on exchanges and platforms like Uphold, MoonPay, Archax, CoinMENA, Bitso, Bullish, Bitstamp, Mercado Bitcoin, Independent Reserve, and Zero Hash. Since then, volume has reached about $900 million in total supply by October 2025. Around $800 million sits on Ethereum, while $100 million is on the XRP Ledger, with XRPL showing strong growth due to lower fees.
Ondo Finance’s tokenized U.S. Treasuries (OUSG) run on XRPL, with RLUSD as the settlement medium. This cuts need for pre-funded accounts, lowering capital waste for banks and custodians.
Ripple’s Securitize deal links RLUSD to tokenized products like BUIDL and VBILL, backed by BlackRock and VanEck, exposing RLUSD to major asset managers.
Consumer Tools Drive Daily XRP Use
Banks get the attention, but consumer apps create consistent demand. Bitso’s wallet in Latin America uses Ripple Payments for remittances and has reached 8 million users sending MXN to USD transfers. Daily transactions pull from substantial liquidity pools, burning fees across millions of individual actions. Bitso maintains its own XRP reserves to handle this flow.
MoonPay enables XRP purchases for NFTs on XRPL marketplaces like Sologenic. Users minting or trading collectibles trigger XRP reserve draws and fee burns with each transaction. A major NFT drop can process hundreds of thousands of transactions in a short window, spiking liquidity requirements fast. These platforms stake liquidity as part of their security model.
Rubic Exchange supports micropayments for content creators, processing subscriptions and tips in XRP. Thousands of daily tips create steady fee burns. Creators hold XRP for payouts, and platforms maintain liquidity pools to support instant settlements. XRP pricing these small value transfers connects the token directly to creator economies.
People are sending remittances to family, buying digital art, and paying creators for content. Each action requires liquidity, burns fees, and locks up supply in reserves. The volume compounds across millions of users doing ordinary things.
Why Ripple Payments Shifts Payment Setup
Each corridor in Ripple Payments builds its own liquidity economy. XRP bridges value between currencies, settles trades, and sits in reserves for remittances, treasuries, and tokenized assets. By late 2025, RippleNet connects over 300 partners with billions in XRP liquidity spread across these corridors.
As institutional flows increase, particularly with BNY and SBI expanding operations, more liquidity gets locked in reserves. This reduces circulating supply and creates upward price pressure. Utility is driving price movement, not just speculation.
Governance gets overlooked too often. Banks joining the network push for specific features like privacy tools and CBDC integration. That makes XRP community input critical for major decisions. Holders aren’t just sitting on an asset. They’re voting on protocol upgrades that affect how the network evolves.
With Ripple Payments reaching millions of users, XRP functions as both a transfer mechanism and a stake in the protocol’s future direction. The token gives you exposure to payment infrastructure growth and influence over how that infrastructure develops.
What Drives Most Activity Now
Corridors like SBI and Tranglo pull the most liquidity because they handle constant flows. Remittances, payouts, settlements. Each transaction burns XRP and draws from liquidity pools. The volume doesn’t spike and crash. It runs steady.
Institutional products like Ripple Prime and GTreasury lock up large reserves. They reduce circulating supply while securing the network for enterprise use. When institutions see others committing capital at that scale, they pay attention. Proven infrastructure attracts more institutional participation.
Consumer tools like Bitso and Rubic connect XRP to everyday transactions. They create baseline demand that doesn’t depend on institutional cycles. But holidays hit different. When 10 million users send remittances during peak periods, liquidity needs spike hard. The network has to handle that surge without breaking, and it does.
Three different demand sources working at once. Steady institutional flows, locked enterprise reserves, and consumer usage that spikes during high volume periods. Each one creates pressure on available supply from a different angle.
The Path Ahead for XRP Adoption
Watch Ripple Payments growth. Corridors in Africa and Latin America could double volumes by 2026. Every transfer needs XRP liquidity to function.
The institutional relationships matter more than people realize. BNY and CIBC ramping up their involvement suggests banks could allocate billions in XRP for operational reserves soon. That tightens available supply while demonstrating the infrastructure is working at scale. When global institutions deploy capital like that, markets respond.
Consumer apps still have significant room to expand. Bitso and MoonPay are testing XRP integration in major markets. If they reach 20 million users, demand during peak usage could jump five times current levels. This shifts value from speculation and trading activity to actual utility.
The pattern is straightforward. More payment corridors need more liquidity, the added institutional commitment locks up more supply and consumer adoption creates more transaction volume. Each piece of this reinforces the others.
Grasping the Full View
Partners adding users in banks, remitters, and creators ramp XRP liquidity, reserves, and community input. This cycles utility into demand. Old systems trap everyone in bottlenecks. Ripple Payments lets corridors run custom flows on shared XRPL security. Banks get compliant bridges for fiat-crypto swaps. Remitters get speed without forex issues. DeFi builders get scalable settlement without jams. These partnerships shift trillions in assets to new rails. BNY custodies for real work. SBI routes billions on solid tech. Ripple Prime launches with institutional support. Each link strengthens XRP and the XRP Ledger as the connector between traditional finance and digital rails. Liquidity provision, reserve needs, and proposal votes lock value as Ripple expands.
Examples of XRP Utility and Use Cases
- Cross-Border Payments (Ripple Payments): Instant fiat bridging for banks like SBI Holdings and Tranglo; $1.3 trillion processed in Q2 2025 with 3-5 second settlements at 0.15% fees versus SWIFT’s 5%+ costs.
- Tokenization of Real-World Assets: Settling treasuries and funds via BNY Mellon custody and Ondo Finance’s OUSG tokenized U.S. Treasuries on XRPL; cutting pre-funded accounts and lowering capital waste.
- DeFi Lending and Swaps: Yield farming on XRPL protocols like Doppler; $200 million TVL with 4-12% APY for liquidity providers.
- NFTs and Collectibles: Minting and trading on Sologenic; millions of transactions during drops with XRP burned for fees.
- Micropayments and Creator Economy: Content tips and subscriptions via Rubic; thousands of daily low-value transfers supporting creator payouts.
- CBDC Interoperability: Ripple works with central banks on CBDC pilots, placing XRP as a bridge between fiat and CBDCs.
- Institutional Prime Brokerage: Clearing, financing, and FX via Ripple Prime (formerly Hidden Road); multi-asset trades across foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income, and digital assets.
- Corporate Treasury Management: Enterprise settlements through GTreasury platform processing $12.5 trillion in payments volume for Fortune 500 companies including American Airlines, Goodyear, and Volvo.
- Stablecoin Infrastructure: RLUSD stablecoin launched December 2024 with $900 million supply; integrated on Ethereum and XRPL for institutional liquidity and DeFi applications.
- Institutional Custody Services: Secure digital asset storage via BNY Mellon (U.S. operations), BDACS (South Korea), and Ripple Custody platform for regulated institutional access.
- Remittance Corridors: SBI Remit processing billions in Asia-Pacific flows; Tranglo facilitating payments across Southeast Asia and Middle East; Bitso serving 8 million users in Latin America.
- Real Estate Tokenization: Partnership with Dubai Land Department and Ctrl Alt in July 2025 to support tokenization of real estate on the XRP Ledger.
- Banking Infrastructure Integration: Partnerships with Santander (One Pay FX), American Express, Standard Chartered, and over 300 financial institutions globally across 40+ countries.
- EVM Sidechain Compatibility: XRP Ledger EVM sidechain supports Ethereum-based applications, allowing developers to build at lower cost and higher speed while using RLUSD as liquid stablecoin.
- Automated Market Maker (AMM) Functionality: Native AMM functionality on XRPL enables liquidity providers to earn yield while traders execute swaps without centralized intermediaries.
Digital Ascension Group’s Link to This Space
Digital Ascension Group tracks institutional blockchain adoption and helps clients with substantial digital holdings establish proper LLC structures and custody arrangements.
When institutions like BNY Mellon and SBI begin using platforms tied to the XRP Ledger for operational infrastructure, it validates the analysis of Digital Ascension Group. Ripple’s payment model addresses a fundamental problem in legacy systems. It enables parallel payment flows without creating bottlenecks. This shifts the conversation from token appreciation to ecosystem infrastructure that supports long term institutional use.
Client inquiries have evolved as banks integrate blockchain into their operations. The question is no longer whether adoption will occur, but which networks will handle institutional volume and how to position assets accordingly. Digital Ascension Group provides guidance on legal structures and custody relationships that align with the scale and complexity of client holdings.
For clients managing significant digital portfolios who need strategic guidance on how institutional blockchain adoption affects their positioning, or who require assistance structuring holdings within compliant frameworks, Digital Ascension Group offers specialized support. Contact us and get support for establishing appropriate legal structures and get connected with qualified custody providers.
