Ripple Just Backed Two Fintechs to Make the XRP Ledger a Bank-Grade Trading Floor
Ripple invested in Zilo and Licuido to bring tokenized funds and collateral onto XRPL, with RLUSD handling settlement.
Ripple has put fresh money behind two lesser-known fintech firms, Zilo and Licuido, in a move aimed at making the XRP Ledger a place where banks and asset managers can actually issue, trade and pledge tokenized investments — not just move XRP around. If it works as planned, it could mean a lot more real-world money flowing through the network that XRP holders already have a stake in.
What Ripple just bought into
Ripple confirmed the investments in a statement, though it did not say how much money changed hands for either deal. Both firms were already partners of Ripple’s before this, so the investment deepens ties that were already in place.
Zilo builds transfer agency and fund administration software — the kind of back-office plumbing that lets asset managers keep regulated, auditable records when a fund’s shares exist as digital tokens rather than paper certificates. Licuido runs a platform regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority that lets traditional assets be issued, traded, and used as digital collateral.
Nigel Khakoo, Ripple’s SVP for Trading and Markets, framed the deals as filling gaps that were holding back bigger institutional adoption. “ZILO and Licuido provide core capabilities that are essential to further scaling this shift: regulated digital transfer agency infrastructure and liquidity for issuance and collateral mobility,” he said. “This is just the beginning of the journey, and we see a substantial opportunity to bring huge efficiencies to the investment sector over the next decade.”
Why it matters for XRP holders
The pitch here isn’t flashy retail crypto stuff — it’s plumbing for institutions. Ripple wants asset managers to be able to issue a tokenized fund, keep it in custody, hand it between investors, and pledge it as collateral, all without touching the slow, paper-heavy systems banks currently rely on.
That’s where RLUSD, Ripple’s own dollar-backed stablecoin, comes in. Under this setup, RLUSD would act as the cash leg in what’s called delivery-versus-payment settlement — meaning the asset moving hands and the payment for it settle at the exact same moment on the XRP Ledger. For everyday holders, that’s the part worth watching: more institutional activity settling through RLUSD and XRPL doesn’t automatically move the XRP price, but it does add real usage to the network beyond speculation.
Part of a bigger pattern
This isn’t a one-off. Just last month Ripple launched a product called Ripple Mint and invested in Notabene, a compliance technology firm, both moves aimed at strengthening the infrastructure around RLUSD. Ripple has also previously worked with well-known names like Aviva Investors, Franklin Templeton, and DBS on tokenized fund and collateral pilots.
According to Ripple, the idea now is to turn those one-off pilot projects into repeatable infrastructure that any asset manager can plug into, rather than bespoke deals built one client at a time. Zilo and Licuido are being positioned as the connective tissue that makes that scaling possible.
None of this changes what XRP is worth today, and Ripple hasn’t put a dollar figure on either investment. But for holders trying to gauge whether XRPL is becoming genuine financial infrastructure or staying a speculative playground, this is another data point suggesting Ripple is betting hard on the former — one regulated partnership at a time.
Read more: XRP Ledger Gained Half a Million New Wallets — Here’s What’s Actually Behind It
