Ripple has announced strategic investments in ZILO and Licuido as part of its broader effort to expand capital markets infrastructure on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The move is intended to bring regulated transfer agency, digital issuance, and collateral mobility to institutional tokenized asset markets.

The announcement follows Aviva Investors' tokenization of its U.S. Dollar Liquidity Fund on the XRPL and represents a continuation of Ripple's push to deepen services for institutional asset managers and issuers. Tokenization of real-world assets has drawn growing interest from major financial institutions, with firms such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton launching tokenized funds on blockchain networks, making the underlying infrastructure for issuance, settlement, and record-keeping an increasingly competitive area.

Integrating Regulated Market Infrastructure

According to Ripple, the investments strengthen existing partnerships with both companies. Together, the firms will integrate regulated transfer agency services, digital issuance, and collateral movement into Ripple's institutional infrastructure stack.

Ripple described its platform as combining asset issuance, custody, collateral management, multi-currency investment, and atomic settlement. The company's stablecoin, RLUSD, serves as the regulated cash leg for delivery-versus-payment transactions on the network.

Nigel Khakoo, Ripple's Senior Vice President of Trading and Markets, said tokenization alone does not unlock the full value of digital assets. Institutions also require efficient trading, settlement, borrowing, lending, and collateral capabilities, he noted.

Partner Capabilities

ZILO provides transfer agency and fund administration technology for asset managers, custodians, and transfer agents. Transfer agency is a regulated function in traditional fund operations responsible for maintaining investor ownership records and processing subscriptions and redemptions. Ripple said the ZILO platform supports tokenized share classes while maintaining regulated digital records.

Phil Goffin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ZILO, said Ripple's investment will help the company expand digital market functionality for institutional clients.

Licuido focuses on issuing, distributing, and trading tokenized financial assets. Ripple said the platform enables fund shares and other traditional assets to move through onchain collateral and atomic settlement infrastructure.

Brian Lynch, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Licuido, said the partnership will support the expansion of the company's collateral marketplace on the XRPL.

Building on Previous Tokenization Work

Ripple said the investments build on its earlier collaboration with Aviva Investors to tokenize traditional fund structures on the XRPL. The company added that ZILO and Licuido support regulated issuance, distribution, custody, and additional use cases.

According to Ripple, the XRPL has processed more than four billion transactions since 2012. The network supports over seven million active wallets and operates through 120 independent validators.