Ripple Labs closes Standard Custody acquisition deal

Ripple Labs closed its acquisition of Standard Custody, a digital asset custodian, the company announced on June 11. The deal, first announced earlier this year, is central to Ripple's planned rollout of a U.S. dollar stablecoin and broader goals of real-world asset tokenization.

As part of the deal, Standard Custody CEO Jack McDonald will be appointed as Ripple's senior vice president of stablecoins, while remaining as the CEO of Standard Custody.

Ripple highlighted Standard Custody's licensing as a core feature of the digital asset custodian, pointing to Standard Custody's regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS)—one of the strictest financial regulators when it comes to digital assets.

The acquisition of Standard Custody follows Ripple's 2023 acquisition of Metaco, another digital asset custody firm, for $250 million. Ripple's purchase of Metaco was underscored by the belief that the institutional crypto custody industry will reach $10 trillion by 2030 as banks increasingly seek to provide digital asset custodial services to their customers.

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Included within the realm of custody services is the emergence of real-world asset tokenization—a market that could swell to over $800 trillion if all the world's capital assets are tokenized, according to Chainlink.

Real-world asset tokenization has become a major focus for firms like Ripple Labs, Chainlink, and Algorand; the emerging tokenization market is widely believed to be the next big frontier for cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and digital assets.

In May, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) published its report of a real-world asset tokenization pilot program conducted between the DTCC and several large banks, including JP Morgan, Edward Jones, and BNY Mellon, which leveraged Chainlink's CCIP interoperability protocol.

The purpose of the experiment was to test the tokenization of fund data and simulate bringing real-world data onchain. According to the DTCC's report, several benefits of blockchain tokenization were identified, including automated data management and reducing the need for record-keeping, real-world transparent APIs for customers, and the ability to create "dynamic data management across the life cycle of an asset."

Ultimately, the pilot program provided insight into potential future applications for banks and other institutional operators looking to leverage blockchain tokenization in their products and services, such as brokerage applications or automated data feeds.

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