The involvement of BNY Mellon and $XRP seems far more significant to me than the word “custody” alone conveys. When you read that a bank will hold an asset, it often feels like the story ends there. But it’s worth understanding what this actually enables. Consider the perspective of an institution that wants to work with XRP. Before moving funds, they must first address fundamental questions: Who holds the assets? Who can authorize transfers? How are transactions recorded? What controls are in place? For us, a wallet may be sufficient. But an institution needs a structure that aligns with its regulatory obligations and operational processes—and that’s where BNY comes in. The announcement allows eligible institutional clients to hold and transfer XRP within BNY’s platform, making it easier for them to engage with the asset using a financial services provider they already trust. That’s why I fully understand the reasoning behind “if they’re going to custody it, they must see value.” My interpretation is that BNY sees a business opportunity in serving clients who already hold XRP—or may want to adopt it. Building this capability signals commercial interest, even if it doesn’t yet reveal the scale of demand. What’s particularly noteworthy is that BNY describes this custody as a foundation for connecting assets to liquidity, payments, and collateral services. Having assets securely held makes it easier to integrate them into other operations once those services become available and authorized. Moreover, the collaboration with Ripple includes expanding services on the XRP Ledger and exploring commercial financing. This reflects broader ambitions, though it remains to be seen what role XRP, RLUSD, and other assets will play in each offering. So yes—there are clear reasons to interpret this move as a strategic bet on providing services around XRP. What we still need to see is how far that bet extends. For me, the concrete advancement is that an institution now has another pathway to hold and transfer XRP within a banking-grade infrastructure. From there, customer adoption, product usage, and transaction volumes will reveal just how far this initiative will go.