Ripple Bolsters XRPL Tokenization With Strategic Investments
Ripple announced strategic investments in ZILO and Licuido on Aug. 3, adding two United Kingdom-based firms to its digital capital markets strategy on the XRP Ledger. The company said the deals will add transfer agency, token issuance, trading and collateral mobility tools to its institutional infrastructure. Ripple disclosed no investment amounts, leaving financial terms and resulting ownership stakes unknown to investors.
“Deepening our push into capital markets, we are investing in ZILO and Licuido to add regulated transfer agency, issuance and collateral mobility to our capital markets infrastructure built on the XRPL. This comes on the heels of Aviva Investors tokenising its US Dollar Liquidity…” — Ripple…
Two Firms, Two Gaps in Tokenized Funds
ZILO’s Integrated Transfer Agency Platform
ZILO supplies transfer agency and fund administration technology. Its new platform lets institutions manage conventional fund units and tokenized share classes within one operating system. ZILO launched an integrated digital assets and transfer agency platform on Monday. The company says it can support issuance, settlement, reconciliation, payments, corporate actions and regulatory reporting without requiring a separate technology stack for digital assets…
ZILO said its configuration tools translate fund rules, share classes and jurisdictional requirements into onchain logic. It also records legal ownership as assets move, a function that transfer agents normally perform within conventional fund systems.
Licuido’s Issuance and Collateral Marketplace
Licuido covers another part of the process. Its platform handles token issuance, distribution and secondary trading, with tokenized fund units designed for use as collateral. Licuido said Ripple’s backing would help scale issuance, trading and collateral mobility through XRPL infrastructure.
Licuido says its legal structure links each token to one-for-one fund ownership. That claim will depend on the documents and regulatory treatment applied to each product. The companies have not published transaction volumes, named new clients or shown that the combined system is operating at scale….
Regulatory Positioning and Ownership Claims
Licuido’s regulatory position needs careful wording. Licuido Markets Limited is an appointed representative of Sapeno Partners LLP, which the Financial Conduct Authority authorizes and regulates. A principal firm sets an appointed representative’s permitted activities and remains responsible for that business. Licuido is therefore not presented on its website as a directly authorized FCA firm.
RLUSD as the Cash Leg for DvP Settlements
Ripple plans to use RLUSD as the cash leg for delivery versus payment transactions. In that model, the tokenized asset and payment settle together on XRPL rather than moving through separate systems at different times. Ripple says tokenized funds could then become collateral from issuance onward.
XRPL Scale in Context
Ripple reports that XRPL has processed more than four billion transactions since 2012, supports more than seven million active wallets and is maintained by 120 independent validators. Those figures describe general ledger activity rather than institutional tokenized fund usage.
Institutional Momentum: Aviva and DBS
As crypto.news previously reported, Aviva Investors tokenized a share class of its U.S. Dollar Liquidity Fund on XRPL on July 29. The move brought a partnership announced in February into production. Ripple said ZILO and Licuido are among the partners supporting issuance, distribution, custody and further uses for Aviva’s tokenized fund structures.
The broader model also resembles Ripple’s work with DBS and Franklin Templeton. crypto.news reported that DBS listed Franklin Templeton’s sgBENJI money market fund token beside RLUSD and planned to explore lending and repurchase transactions using tokenized units as collateral.
Those projects give Ripple existing institutional settings in which ZILO’s records and Licuido’s market tools could be tested. Ripple has not confirmed that the two companies will support every Aviva, Franklin Templeton or DBS product.
What Happens Next for Ripple’s Capital Markets Push
The next steps depend on technical integrations and client launches. ZILO said it is providing Ripple with a digital transfer agency solution, but neither company published a deployment date. Licuido also said it would expand its collateral marketplace on XRPL without giving a launch schedule or naming participating asset managers.
Future disclosures will need to show which funds use the combined stack, what regulated activities Licuido performs under its principal firm, and whether RLUSD gains measurable settlement volume. Until then, the investments expand Ripple’s available infrastructure, but they do not establish adoption, revenue or liquidity outcomes.
Ripple did not disclose either investment amount, the ownership stakes received or financial targets for the partnerships. Both companies separately confirmed the funding. Ripple executive Nigel Khakoo called the investment sector a “substantial opportunity” over the next decade. That statement is a company forecast, not a verified measure of future adoption or savings….
