Ripple helps ZILO and Licuido to promote more finance...

What has ZILO and Licuido's investment brought?

Ripple has made strategic investments in British companies ZILO and Licuido to build a better capital market infrastructure around XRP ledgers. Specific financial terms were not disclosed. ZILO provides transfer agency and fund management technology to asset management companies, custodians and transfer agents. Its system supports tokenized share categories, allowing investment funds to manage investor records, subscriptions, redemptions, and ownership changes when a fund unit is linked. Licuido is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and focuses on the issuance and distribution of traditional financial assets in a tokenized form. Its infrastructure is designed to get these assets into the collateral workflow through atomic clearing, which ensures that connected transactions are either fully completed or cancelled. Ripple expects the two companies to add regulated transfer agency, issuance and collateral liquidity functions to their institutional infrastructure on the XRP ledger. These investments are not just bets on tokenized providers; they allow Ripple to acquire the operational capabilities it needs once the assets are linked, including management, distribution and subsequent use in financing transactions.

Why is collateral liquidity important?

Tokenizing a fund does not automatically make its assets more useful. If market participants are unable to verify ownership, transfer assets between approved parties, or use them as collateral without lengthy manual verification, the tokenized share category may remain idle. Ripple is trying to connect these links. Its planned model combines issuance, custody, collateral use, multi-currency investment, and bond settlement. Ripple USD (RLUSD) will serve as a regulated cash terminal, allowing simultaneous settlement of assets and payments to be traded. The structure targets several long-standing costs in capital markets: collateral is often trapped in separate custodians or legal entities, settlement may require multiple intermediaries, and funds may not be able to quickly reuse eligible assets. A regulated on-chain system can reduce reconciliation efforts and shorten the time from issuance, transfer, and collateral deployment.

Investor Revelation

Ripple is building capabilities that go beyond token issuance. The business test will be whether institutions will use XRPL-based fund units for real clearing and collateral transactions, creating continued demand for ledgers, custody services and RLUSD.

How do these deals fit into Ripple's institutional strategy?

These investments follow Ripple's partnerships with Aviva Investors, Franklin Templeton and DBS. In February this year, Ripple and Aviva Investors began exploring the tokenization of traditional funds on XRP ledgers. Subsequently, Aviva launched a tokenized share category of its U.S. dollar liquidity funds on XRPL after receiving approval from the Central Bank of Ireland. This launch provides Ripple with an actual fund product around which ZILO's transfer agent system and Licuido's issuance and collateral tools can be used. This also provides Ripple with a clearer institutional use case than simply recording token ownership on a public ledger. In addition, Ripple launched Ripple Mint last month, providing institutions with tools to cast, redeem and manage RLUSD. Taken together, Ripple Mint, Aviva Funds, ZILO and Licuido cover several links in a single transaction chain: creating cash tokens, issuing investment products, recording ownership, and using final assets in settlement or collateral arrangements. This strategy may also increase the use of RLUSD. Stable coins used as settlement cash can generate duplicate trading demands even when investors are not actively trading cryptocurrencies. For Ripple, in the long run, this may be more valuable than speculation relying solely on XRP.

Can XRPL compete in tokenized real-world assets?

XRP ledgers are still much smaller than Ethereum in terms of tokenizing real-world assets. XRPL holds approximately US$368 million in tokenized RWA, ranking the 11th largest blockchain in the space, while Ethereum holds approximately US$17.1 billion. This gap suggests that Ripple still needs to attract more issuers, asset managers and distributors before XRPL becomes the leading institutional tokenization network. Its advantages may come from packaging regulated services around ledgers, rather than just competing on blockchain capacity or transaction costs. The broader market continues to grow. The value of tokenized real-world assets has recently reached approximately $37.3 billion, while the number of holders has grown 50% to 1.57 million in 30 days. Holders are growing much faster than asset values, suggesting that although large institutional allocations remain limited, distribution is expanding. Ripple's latest investment is aimed at this next stage. ZILO can support investors and fund management levels, while Licuido can connect issuance with collateral use. The next step will be whether more regulated funds are launched on XRPL and whether these assets can move beyond the custody stage into active financing and settlement processes.