What is Ripple Custody, and which banks use it?

The full answer

Ripple Custody is a product, not a vault Ripple runs for the public. Ripple’s product page is titled “Institutional Digital Asset Custody Technology” and says “Ripple Custody accelerates the journey from pilot to production with adaptable, institutional-grade custody technology.”[1] Ripple says “Ripple Custody is designed for banks and financial institutions who want to safely secure digital assets, stablecoins or Real World Assets (RWAs).”[3]

What is Ripple Custody?

It covers storing the keys that control the assets and connecting to the firm’s existing systems: “Through our API-centric architecture, bank management systems can connect seamlessly to the platform.”[1] Ripple offers “Customizable deployment options tailored to fit your needs across hot, warm or cold vaults, MPC or HSM key management, and on-premise or cloud-based SaaS setups.”[1] In plain terms, the client can run it on its own servers or use it as cloud software, and can choose how the keys are split and stored.

Ripple built the business partly through purchases. Ripple announced on May 17, 2023 that it had acquired Metaco, a Swiss custody technology firm, for $250 million.[2] On February 9, 2026 it added hardware key storage from Securosys and said “Ripple has partnered with Figment to offer staking capabilities to their Custody clients,” along with Chainalysis screening that enables “real-time transaction screening and policy enforcement before assets move.”[4]

Which banks use Ripple Custody, and do they hold XRP in it?

All the client names come from Ripple. On April 15, 2026, it wrote that Ripple Custody is “trusted by tier-one banks and financial institutions globally, including BBVA, DBS Bank, DZ Bank, and Intesa Sanpaolo,” and that “Intesa Sanpaolo is leveraging Ripple Custody to support its digital asset initiatives.”[5] The same post said Ripple had “partnered with Kyobo Life Insurance” to “explore blockchain-based custody and on-chain settlement infrastructure,” which describes an exploration, not a live service.[5] In an October 10, 2024 release, Ripple had named “BBVA Switzerland, Societe Generale – FORGE, DBS, RULEMATCH, Archax, Futureverse and more,” and reported “250% year-over-year new customer growth” without a base number.[6]

None of these sources says which assets the banks hold in Ripple Custody. None mentions a bank holding XRP in it. No public source gives a count of clients or of the value of assets secured as of September 29, 2026. Whether regulated firms can hold XRP safely at all is covered on can regulated institutions safely custody XRP.

Which Korean bank adopted Ripple Custody?

Kbank. On April 30, 2026, Ripple announced a partnership in which Kbank, which the release calls “Korea’s most crypto-native bank,” is “expanding its institutional digital asset capabilities through multi-party computation-based wallet infrastructure designed to securely manage assets across multiple blockchain networks.”[7] The release says Kbank takes it as a service: “Through Ripple Custody’s wallet-as-a-service, Kbank gains bank-grade wallet infrastructure,” letting it deploy “without the cost, complexity, and operational burden of building and maintaining that infrastructure in-house.”[7]

Kbank’s CEO, Choi Woo-hyung, framed the purpose around stablecoins: “This partnership marks a turning point in advancing our stablecoin-based remittance capabilities.”[7] The release does not mention XRP, and it describes a deployment under way rather than a system already live. Neither Kbank nor Ripple had said more about its status as of September 29, 2026.

What services will Ripple National Trust Bank provide?

Ripple National Trust Bank is a separate, planned business. On December 12, 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said it “conditionally approved applications for de novo national trust bank charters for First National Digital Currency Bank and Ripple National Trust Bank.”[8] The approval letter says the bank “plans to provide services to SCTC, including managing a segregated reserve of liquid assets underlying RLUSD issued by SCTC,” and “performing collateral trustee services for the benefit of RLUSD holders on a fiduciary basis,” and “plans to provide cryptocurrency custody service to affiliates and unaffiliated institutional customers on a fiduciary basis.”[9] The letter identifies SCTC as “Standard Custody & Trust Company, LLC,” the Ripple subsidiary that issues RLUSD.[9] Crypto.news wrote that the trust bank “does not custody XRP for the benefit of XRP holders, does not create any obligation to buy or hold the token, and does not make XRP a bank deposit or a regulated bank instrument.” Ripple listed “the acquisition of Standard Custody in June 2024” among its deals,[15] and describes the company as “the issuer of RLUSD.”[10] What stands behind RLUSD is on what backs RLUSD.

The OCC approval is preliminary and conditional only. The letter says final approval to begin business “will not be granted until all preopening requirements are met,” and that “If the capital for the Bank is not raised within 12 months or if the Bank is not opened for business within 18 months from the preliminary conditional approval date, this approval expires.”[9] Counting from December 12, 2025, the 18-month mark is June 12, 2027. Circle, whose First National Digital Currency Bank was named in the same OCC sentence, announced on July 10, 2026 that it had “received approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.”[11] No equivalent final approval for Ripple’s bank had been announced as of September 29, 2026. What a charter would change for Ripple is on is Ripple becoming a bank, and the rules that let US banks hold crypto are on can US banks custody crypto.

How does Ripple Custody compare with Coinbase, BitGo and Anchorage custody?

The three are custodians: regulated firms that hold assets for clients themselves. New York’s financial regulator approved “Coinbase Custody Trust Company LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinbase Global, Inc., to operate as a limited purpose trust company” on October 23, 2018.[12] The OCC announced on January 13, 2021 its “conditional approval of the conversion of Anchorage Trust Company, a South Dakota chartered trust company, to become Anchorage Digital Bank, National Association.”[13] BitGo said on December 13, 2025 that it had “full, unconditional approval” from the OCC to become BitGo Bank & Trust, N.A.[14]

Ripple Custody, by contrast, is the technology a bank uses to be its own custodian.[1][7] On that reading, its main rival is a bank building custody in-house, and a bank that uses it keeps the customer relationship and the regulatory duty itself. Ripple National Trust Bank, if it opens, would put Ripple in a similar position to Anchorage and BitGo.[9] This comparison is our analysis of how each firm describes itself; no source ranking them by assets held was found.

What do these announcements not show?

The evidence for Ripple Custody’s reach is almost all from Ripple: client names, the growth figure and the Kbank deal come from its own releases.[5][6][7] None shows XRP being held. Holding XRP in a bank’s custody system and using XRP in payments are separate questions, and whether Ripple’s payment products need XRP at all is argued on does Ripple Payments require XRP. What custodied XRP could be used for beyond storage is on can custodied XRP be put to work in DeFi.