Ripple Invests in ZILO and Licuido to Support Tokenized Asset Production

Ripple says banks are moving tokenized assets “from pilots to production” — and it’s betting on that shift Ripple President Monica Long told investors on Aug. 4 that institutional adoption of tokenized financial products is accelerating: what were once bank pilots are now being deployed in production, creating immediate demand for the operational infrastructure needed to issue, manage and use regulated assets on public blockchains. To address that demand, Ripple announced two strategic investments one day earlier in ZILO and Licuido. Ripple says the deals will add transfer agency, token issuance and collateral-mobility tools to its capital markets stack on the XRP Ledger (financial terms were not disclosed). Why this matters - Moving from a proof of concept to a regulated, usable product requires far more than minting a token. Firms need transfer agency, reconciled investor registers, custody, settlement rails and the ability to use tokens as collateral. - Ripple frames its ZILO and Licuido investments as filling those operational gaps so tokenized fund share classes can live and move inside existing regulatory and fund structures. A concrete example: Aviva Investors - Aviva launched a tokenized share class of its U.S. Dollar Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger on July 29 — the clearest public example cited by Ripple. The Central Bank of Ireland approved the new share class. - Eligible investors can access the token through approved digital wallets; BNY Mellon continues to hold the fund’s underlying assets; Komainu provided custody; Licuido supplied tokenization infrastructure. - The token represents the investor’s interest while the underlying short-term debt instruments remain inside the regulated fund — preserving investment objectives, liquidity terms and regulatory protections. What ZILO and Licuido do - ZILO: transfer agency and fund administration. Transfer agents keep investor registers, process subscriptions/redemptions, handle corporate actions and reconcile records. ZILO launched an integrated digital-asset and transfer-agency platform on Aug. 3 with Ripple, saying it can manage conventional units and tokenized assets through one system (issuance, payments, settlement, reconciliation, reporting). Ripple says this will help bring regulated record-keeping to the XRP Ledger. ZILO founder Phil Goffin said the funding should let the company add digital market functions without forcing institutions to abandon existing controls — though that remains a plan rather than proven adoption or cost savings. - Licuido: issuance, distribution, secondary trading and collateral mobility. Its system is designed to let asset managers tokenize fund shares and for eligible institutions to pledge those shares as collateral instead of selling them. Regulatory note: Licuido Markets Limited is an appointed representative of Sapeno Partners LLP, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority — it should not be described as independently FCA-authorized without that qualification. How Ripple intends to tie it together - Ripple plans to use its dollar stablecoin RLUSD as the cash leg in delivery-versus-payment (DvP) transactions so the tokenized fund unit and payment can settle together onchain — potentially reducing settlement risk. - Ripple also wants freshly issued fund tokens to become eligible for borrowing, lending and margin workflows soon after issuance. - So far, Ripple has not published transaction totals showing RLUSD processing tokenized fund settlements at scale via ZILO or Licuido, nor named institutions using the combined stack for collateral transactions. Bigger picture and the gaps - The XRP Ledger already hosts tokenized financial products and stablecoins. Data from RWA.xyz showed roughly $4.06 billion in represented assets and $313.3 million in distributed assets on the network as of July 29 (categories are tracked separately and don’t imply a pool of freely circulating liquidity). - Ripple also works with Franklin Templeton and DBS on money-market token projects; DBS listed Franklin Templeton’s sgBENJI token alongside RLUSD and has discussed lending and repo use cases. - But important details remain unavailable: how much Ripple invested, ownership stakes, revenue arrangements, rollout timelines, settlement volumes, collateral values and the number of institutions actively using these services. What to watch next - More tokenized fund launches with named institutional customers. - Transaction data showing RLUSD used for DvP at scale and tokens pledged in live lending, repo or margin transactions. - Asset managers adopting ZILO’s combined transfer-agency/digital assets platform and the launch and uptake of Licuido’s collateral marketplace on the XRP Ledger. Bottom line Ripple’s investments target the practical operational gaps between creating a token and running a regulated financial product onchain. Monica Long’s assertion that institutions are moving from pilots to production aligns with visible launches like Aviva’s, but broader industry confirmation will need transparent usage data, client lists and live collateral flows to show the shift is widespread.