Headline: Ripple doubles down on Brazil — seeks VASP license, launches custody, and scales tokenization across Latin America
Ripple is stepping up its push into Brazil, South America’s largest economy, announcing plans to expand operations, apply for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license with the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), and roll out institutional-grade custody and tokenization services across the region.
Why Brazil matters
Ripple says Brazil’s recently established virtual asset regulatory framework and its “advanced and forward-thinking” financial ecosystem make the country a priority market. Monica Long, Ripple’s president, stressed the firm has spent years building the trust, licenses and technology needed to operate in regulated markets — and that Ripple is now positioned to serve institutional needs across Latin America, from cross-border payments and prime brokerage to treasury management and digital asset custody.
Regulatory step: VASP application
As part of its expansion, Ripple plans to apply for a VASP license with the BCB, aiming to operate fully under Brazil’s new rules for virtual assets. Securing the license would formalize Ripple’s ability to provide a broad suite of regulated services in the country.
Custody, compliance and technology
Ripple Custody — launched after Ripple’s acquisition of Metaco in 2023 — is set to debut in Brazil. The service promises “bank-grade” security, real-time compliance monitoring, support for multiple hardware security module (HSM) vendors, and flexible deployment options for regulated institutions. Ripple says Custody integrates with Chainalysis and Elliptic for transaction monitoring and supports institutional staking across Proof-of-Stake networks.
Real-world traction and partners
Ripple is highlighting multiple local partnerships that illustrate real-world use cases. References include Brazil’s Banco Genial, Nomad and Braza Bank, which are using Ripple technology to tackle liquidity and payments challenges.
On the tokenization front, Brazil-based CRX — which focuses on tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) — is using the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ripple Custody to issue and manage RWAs at scale, with roughly $100 million already settled on-chain. Justoken, which has tokenized over $1.7 billion in assets on the XRPL, plans to deploy Ripple’s Custody tools to build institutional-grade infrastructure for tokenizing Latin American natural resources.
Stablecoin momentum
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is reportedly gaining traction with regional institutions seeking regulated digital-dollar solutions. Ripple says RLUSD is already being adopted by major Brazilian exchanges and fintechs, including Mercado Bitcoin, Foxbit, Ripio and Attrus.
Market reaction
At the time of the announcement, XRP was trading around $1.52 — up about 7% over the past week and roughly 1% in the last 24 hours — as the firm pushes deeper into regulated Latin American markets.
Bottom line
Ripple’s Brazil strategy ties regulatory engagement (a VASP application) to concrete product rollouts (Custody, integrations and tokenization use cases), signaling a push to onboard institutional clients and exchanges in a rapidly maturing market for digital assets across Latin America.
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