BNY Adds XRP and RLUSD Custody, Explores Tokenized Trade Finance With Ripple
Key Facts
Ripple and BNY announced on October 27, 2026, an expansion of their collaboration to develop institutional custody for digital assets and explore blockchain use cases, including tokenized trade finance. Ripple said BNY’s digital custody platform now supports XRP, the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger network, alongside RLUSD. This enables eligible institutional clients to custody, hold and transfer these assets through the platform. The announcement follows BNY’s earlier role as primary custodian of RLUSD reserves, as well as its custody relationship with Ripple Prime. The announcement distinguishes the stated custody service from the trade finance track, which remains under exploration.
BNY intends to expand its support for tokenized assets and investment products issued on XRPL as institutional use cases develop, and is working with Ripple to enable the bank’s clients to issue and redeem RLUSD directly through BNY. The company describes these steps as future plans, while the support announced so far is limited to custody of XRP and RLUSD for eligible institutional clients. Monica Long, Ripple’s president, said the focus “is now shifting to making these tokenized assets usable in payments and collateral across financial markets.” The approach reflects an expansion of digital assets’ role from issuance and custody to use in institutional financial activities. The two parties did not announce a timeline for the start of issuance and redemption services or provide implementation details.
In a track separate from the custody expansion, Ripple and BNY are exploring a supply-chain finance initiative with C2FO, which Ripple said is a first step toward tokenized trade finance and aims to broaden investor access to the asset class. Tokenized trade finance, as Ripple defines it, is the digital representation of existing assets such as accounts receivable, which may broaden the investor base and simplify asset management and distribution. In parallel, C2FO and Ripple announced an initiative on October 27 to move financing and settlement activities associated with C2FO Instant Pay to XRPL, using RLUSD for settlement. This means the C2FO initiative concerns financing and settling invoices over the network, while Ripple and BNY’s announcement does not describe a large-scale existing trade finance service. The announcement provided no details on the initiative’s launch date or expected transaction volume.
C2FO Instant Pay targets the liquidity delays suppliers face after delivering goods and services; companies in supply chains may wait 30, 60 or 90 days before being paid. Ripple says the service enables suppliers to receive funds within seconds against invoices whose terms and due dates remain as agreed. The company said C2FO’s Early Pay programs have helped businesses access more than $250 billion in working capital by accelerating payment of approved invoices. Ripple says XRPL transactions settle in 3 to 5 seconds, cost a fraction of a cent and run around the clock, seven days a week. These specifications provide the technical foundation for the announced initiative, without on their own establishing the scale of commercial use it will reach.
As RLUSD use on the network expands, Ripple said the stablecoin’s market capitalization exceeded $2.5 billion at the time of the announcement, with more than $1 billion issued on XRPL. These figures offer an indication of the stablecoin’s circulation and presence on the network, while the announcement of its value remains separate from details of the C2FO initiative. More broadly, the World Bank estimated in October 2025 that the global gap between trade finance supply and demand was about $2.5 trillion. The bank said small businesses in fragile and conflict-affected countries face a more acute shortfall. In an article published on August 12, 2026, BNY said most blockchain-based trade finance activity had remained at the pilot and proof-of-concept stage, with a limited number of early initiatives. It cited legal and regulatory frameworks as barriers to scaling such activity.
The partnership comes as BNY has expanded its digital asset services. On July 29, 2026, it announced the launch of digital transfer agency capabilities to support the lifecycle of digital and traditional funds across multiple jurisdictions and blockchain networks, including subscriptions and redemptions in traditional currencies and stablecoins. On October 13, BNY announced it had executed a tri-party repo financing transaction with Citadel Securities using a tokenized representation of a two-year U.S. Treasury bond, which was used as collateral for short-term financing after settlement. BNY has also said that fraud-prone trade finance transactions may account for as much as 1% of the annual total, worth more than $50 billion, warning of repeated document submissions or financing the same asset twice. These examples provide context for the bank’s expansion of digital services, while the Ripple, BNY and C2FO initiative remains under exploration. Ripple is holding its Swell conference in New York from October 27 to 29, 2026.
According to Ripple, BNY’s business includes $63.4 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, in addition to $2.2 trillion in assets under management, as of September 30, 2026. The figures place the bank among large custody and asset management institutions, highlighting the scale of the client base that could benefit from the development of digital asset services. The announcement did not specify the volume of assets or number of clients expected to move to these services. The two parties also did not announce a timeline for expanding support for tokenized assets or enabling RLUSD issuance and redemption through BNY. The announced trade finance track remains tied to the exploration of the initiative with C2FO, while Swell events in New York continue through October 29.