As institutions move from digital asset pilots to production-scale rollouts, one critical question remains at the center of every serious strategy conversation: How will we store, govern and move value in a world of tokenized assets?
Custody, once treated as a backend detail, has become the core infrastructure layer that makes institutional participation in digital assets not just possible, but profitable. More than security or storage, modern custody platforms serve as critical mission-control layers: orchestrating transaction workflows, enforcing policy, supporting compliance and enabling the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) at scale.
For decision-makers eyeing tokenized securities, stablecoin settlement or real-world asset issuance, the opportunity is clear.
But so is the risk.
The right custody infrastructure isn’t just nice to have. It’s the entry point to Web3. And with Ripple Custody, institutions have a path to deploy with confidence.
Custody: From vault to platform
The idea that custody is just a vault or a place to park private keys is a relic of the early crypto era. Today, custody must serve as the backbone of every asset operation undertaken by a financial institution in Web3.
Institutions need governance frameworks, granular access controls, programmable workflows and seamless integration into both legacy systems and new blockchain rails. They need to define and enforce policies: who can move assets, when, under what conditions. They also need audit trails that regulators can follow and trust.
Put simply, custody isn’t just meant for storage anymore. It’s software. And Ripple Custody is built for this new paradigm.
The platform enables institutions, fintechs and crypto businesses to govern token operations through programmable rules, multi-layer approvals, role-based access and integration-ready APIs. Security is table stakes: Ripple’s system is ISO 27001-certified, SOC 2 audited and supports the most rigorous key management architectures on the market, including FIPS 140-2 Level 4 HSMs.
But it’s the flexibility that sets it apart. Ripple Custody supports a range of deployment options, including on-prem, SaaS or a hybrid of the two. This allows financial institutions to align custody models with internal policy, client demands and jurisdictional requirements.
From pilot to production: DZ BANK as a case study
Over the past 24 months, the narrative has shifted from experimentation to execution. As regulatory clarity improves and internal demand grows, banks are no longer exploring tokenization. They’re implementing it.
Germany’s DZ BANK offers a telling example. As the country’s second-largest bank by assets and a central institution for over 700 cooperative banks, DZ BANK recently launched its institutional digital asset custody platform built with Ripple Custody.
It wasn’t a demo. It was full integration with capital markets infrastructure, supporting custody for tokenized securities and future tokenized asset operations. DZ BANK manages €350 billion in assets under custody. Now, digital assets are part of that picture. Other global financial institutions using Ripple Custody include HSBC and SocGen-Forge, which have implemented tokenization programs for digital bonds and tokenized gold, respectively.
Institutions have a choice. Either they can build their own custody infrastructure – which means undergoing a multi-year endeavor requiring specialized talent and complex compliance overhead – or they can partner with a platform that’s already proven.
DZ BANK’s success underscores how quickly financial institutions can move from concept to full-scale deployment when they choose the second option. Ripple’s 2025 New Value report explores this shift and the institutional playbook for going beyond proofs of concept.
Tokenization is happening (and custody must scale)
The market for real-world asset tokenization is accelerating fast. Forecasts project that the tokenized RWA market will grow from $0.6 trillion in 2025 to nearly $19 trillion by 2033. That’s not a marginal trend. It’s a full re-architecture of financial infrastructure.
Custody systems must now support:
Tokenized securities and bonds, with customizable workflows and strict governance
Money Market Funds and private credit, which demand real-time settlement, role-based access and policy-based controls
Stablecoins, with over $215 billion in circulation as of mid-2025, and growing relevance in cross-border treasury flows
As Maicoin CEO Alex Liu noted, “The only [tokenization] use case that has achieved scale is U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins. That's not a trivial scale. This is at a level where it's definitely being noticed.”
Governance is the differentiator
In an industry marked by high-profile security lapses, custody platforms must embed policy controls, multi-party governance and rigorous security protocols by design. Ripple unpacks these priorities in a deep dive on crypto custody security, where governance is not an afterthought but a fundamental layer of trust.
Seven of the nine largest digital asset heists in history occurred between 2021 and 2025, with some involving billions in stolen funds. The ensuing collapse of exchanges, the implied rise of insider threats and the increasing sophistication of bad actors have made one thing clear: Granular governance is non-negotiable.
Ripple Custody is built with this reality in mind. It enables institutions to:
Define multi-party approval flows
Enforce transaction policies down to asset, role and time-based rules
Lock in governance frameworks that reduce the risk of social engineering, collusion and unapproved access
This isn’t just about security. It’s about ensuring institutions can prove compliance, enforce risk protocols and operate with confidence, all while keeping regulators and auditors onside.
Bridging TradFi and Web3
Most custody platforms are either crypto-native or TradFi-oriented. Ripple Custody bridges both.
With over a decade of experience operating across crypto markets and institutional finance, Ripple brings a dual advantage: a deep understanding of blockchain infrastructure and a real fluency in bank-grade systems.
This makes the platform especially suited to financial institutions navigating hybrid environments, particularly those integrating tokenized assets into existing capital markets workflows or building compliant new product lines across on-chain and off-chain rails.
Ripple Custody’s architecture supports flexible integrations with banking infrastructure (via modular APIs), interoperability with legacy systems and blockchain networks and compliance-first tooling, including tamper-proof audit trails, customizable reporting and alignment with emerging regulatory standards.
In an industry where siloed systems break trust and limit scale, interoperability and compliance become a competitive edge.
Custody enables what comes next
As institutions move from tokenization theory to practice, they’re discovering that nothing works without the right custody stack. Whether the goal is tokenized gold, stablecoin payments, staking, lending or ESG-linked RWAs, custody is the infrastructure layer that governs it all.
It’s not about picking a vault. It’s about selecting a partner that can evolve with your business as strategies mature. Ripple Custody offers institutions a platform, not a black box.
Instead of mere safekeeping, it’s about strategic enablement.
And for those looking to explore the opportunity further, Ripple recently hosted a CoinDesk webinar to walk through these use cases, explore live deployments and help institutions chart their custody roadmap.
Ready to build the future of digital assets?
Institutional custody is no longer a supporting actor. It’s the foundation. With real deployments, flexible architecture and bank-grade compliance, Ripple Custody is helping institutions move from pilot to production with confidence.
The next wave of adoption is already underway. Institutions that want to lead the future of finance need to act now before the gap becomes a moat.
