Ripple points the crypto industry to 4 arms for crypto custody

Ripple and the Blockchain Association Singapore (BAS) co-hosted a workshop on crypto custody and stablecoins in Singapore.  Ripple’s team pointed out four core principles for custody providers, including compliance by design, tailored models, operational resilience, and governance.

The compliance-by-design approach showed that regulators such as Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS) require strict asset segregation and recovery protocols.

They also emphasized that institutions must choose custody models suited to their needs. This is whether or not it is third-party, hybrid, or self-custody.

Next, the leaders talked about operational resilience. They said that workflows must handle interruptions, meet recovery standards set by laws like the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act, and have strong monitoring and response methods.

Fourth, they pointed to governance, saying segregation of duties, independent oversight, and audit trails as essential to maintaining trust.

According to Ripple execs, digital asset custody has become the foundation for institutional adoption of stablecoins, tokenized assets, and cross-border settlement. Rahul Advani, Ripple’s global co-head of policy, and Caren Tso, its Asia-Pacific policy manager, said custody is now a critical entry point for enterprises wanting to scale digital finance. 

Institutional standards for stablecoin custody 

The event also focused on institutional standards for stablecoin custody and culminated in releasing a best practices report by BAS subcommittees on stablecoins and cybersecurity.

According to Ripple, the fifth theme of the class was the role of custody in making stablecoins useful in everyday situations like trade finance, cross-border payments, and managing cash flow. 

They said enterprise-grade custodians can help with this change by providing API integration, anti-money laundering (AML) tools, and programmable features. According to them,  the change is also to safeguard tokenized documents related to global trade.

To that end, according to Advani and Tso, digital finance, smart contracts, tokenized documents, and automated compliance will need to be more deeply integrated with custody infrastructure. These features will help build a digital banking system that can grow, work with other systems, and adapt to the new financial era.

The company talked about its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin and said that it was released under a New York Trust Company Charter. It means that it has to have separate reserves, be audited by a third party, and be backed by the full dollar. 

Ripple also said that its custody platform is made to help institutions handle tokenized assets in a way that meets operational and legal standards.

Ripple projects growth in the adoption of custody solutions 

Ripple executives pointed to a recent Ripple–Boston Consulting Group report prediction that tokenized real-world assets could reach $18.9 trillion by 2033. Standard Chartered also forecasts up to $30 trillion by 2034.

In addition,  Ripple’s survey found that more than half of firms in the Asia Pacific plan to adopt custody solutions in the next three years. This has been proven possible because the real-world asset tokenization market has surged 380% over the past 3 years, now hitting around $24 billion as of June 2025. 

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon are piloting tokenized money-market funds using blockchain tech. BlackRock, Coinbase, Bank of America, and Citi are exploring tokenization and digital securities offerings.

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