Ripple and BNY expand partnership to custody XRP and RLUSD

Ripple and BNY are deepening their relationship. On October 27, 2026, the two companies announced an expanded collaboration that adds XRP and Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin to BNY’s Digital Asset Custody platform.

Scale is what makes this notable. BNY oversees tens of trillions in assets under custody and administration.

The deal also goes beyond storage. BNY clients will be able to mint and redeem RLUSD directly, and the two firms plan to explore blockchain use cases in tokenized trade finance built on the XRP Ledger.

What BNY is adding to its platform

The expanded arrangement has three moving parts. The first is custody. BNY now supports safekeeping for both XRP and RLUSD, so institutional clients can hold either asset with a traditional banking counterparty.

The second piece is direct minting and redemption of RLUSD. Minting is the process of creating new stablecoins when dollars come in. Redemption runs the other way, turning tokens back into cash. Giving BNY clients a direct path to both could make it simpler for large holders to move in and out of RLUSD.

The third piece is exploratory. Ripple and BNY intend to look at blockchain applications that could make tokenized trade finance more efficient, using the public XRP Ledger, known as XRPL.

The collaboration draws on Ripple’s blockchain technology and XRPL to improve payment processes, settlement and collateral workflows for institutional clients. XRPL has processed more than 4.6 billion transactions since launch, with settlement times ranging from 3 to 5 seconds.

Ripple President Monica Long described the partnership as connecting critical infrastructure. Her framing: the point is to help institutions go from simply holding digital assets to actively using them in capital markets and trade finance.

A partnership that has been building for a while

This is not a new relationship. BNY has served as the primary reserve custodian for RLUSD since July 9, 2025, which means the bank holds the assets that back the stablecoin.

RLUSD has since grown to a market capitalization of approximately $2.5 billion.

In January 2026, BNY launched tokenized deposit services, and Ripple Prime signed on as an early adopter.

Put together, the ties now run in several directions. BNY holds RLUSD’s reserves. Ripple Prime uses BNY’s tokenized deposits. And now BNY will custody XRP and RLUSD for its clients while opening a direct mint-and-redeem channel for the stablecoin.

What this means for institutions, Ripple and the market

For Ripple, the most immediate benefit is distribution. Plugging RLUSD’s minting and redemption into a major custodian’s client base could widen its institutional reach.

For XRP, the custody addition carries a different kind of weight. Inclusion on BNY’s platform positions it as a more practical option for institutional asset management.

For BNY, the move reflects an effort to keep pace with client demand in a fast-changing digital asset landscape. Adding direct stablecoin minting suggests BNY sees digital assets as part of its core service menu rather than an experiment.

The trade finance angle is the piece with the longest runway and the most uncertainty. The two firms are exploring use cases, not launching products.