Ripple has invested in ZILO and Licuido as part of its push into tokenized capital markets. The investments target regulated fund issuance, settlement, trading, and collateral use on the XRP Ledger.
The blockchain payments company disclosed the investments on Monday but did not reveal their financial terms. Both companies operate from the United Kingdom and already work with Ripple on institutional financial products.
Ripple expects their technology to help asset managers issue tokenized funds and move them between investors. Institutions could also use those funds as collateral immediately after issuance instead of leaving the assets idle.
ZILO provides transfer agency and fund administration systems for asset managers, wealth firms, and custodians. Its technology creates regulated digital ownership records for investors holding tokenized fund shares.
The company has made an announcement about raising $58.7 million in total equity funding. Ripple expects ZILO’s systems to support the creation and management of tokenized share classes on XRPL.
Licuido operates an investment platform regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. It supports the issuance, distribution, trading, and collateral use of traditional financial assets in digital form.
Together, the companies provide several functions needed across a tokenized fund’s life cycle. These include investor recordkeeping, issuance, distribution, liquidity, settlement, and collateral movement.
Nigel Khakoo, Ripple’s senior vice president for trading and markets, said the companies provide key infrastructure for the sector.
“ZILO and Licuido provide core capabilities that are essential to further scaling this shift: regulated digital transfer agency infrastructure and liquidity for issuance and collateral mobility,” Khakoo said.
He added, “This is just the beginning of the journey, and we see a substantial opportunity to bring huge efficiencies to the investment sector over the next decade.”
Meanwhile, Ripple plans to connect both companies’ services with its wider institutional infrastructure. The setup could allow financial firms to issue assets, hold them in custody, transfer ownership, and use them as collateral.
The model seeks to reduce idle collateral within traditional fund structures. Under existing systems, firms can face delays before newly issued fund units become available for trading or financing.
Ripple wants tokenized funds to become usable from the point of issuance. This structure could connect fund administration records with trading, custody, payments, and collateral systems through XRPL.
The investments follow Ripple’s partnership with Aviva Investors. The asset manager announced plans in February to develop tokenized fund structures on XRPL. Ripple said the ledger provides built-in tools for asset issuance, trading, escrow, and regulated financial activity.
Additionally, Ripple recently launched Ripple Mint for institutional asset issuance and management. The platform supports the creation, redemption, and administration of tokenized securities, stablecoins, fund units, bonds and other assets.
RLUSD is expected to serve as the cash side of transactions involving tokenized assets. Ripple plans to use the stablecoin for delivery-versus-payment settlement, where the asset and payment transfer together.
This arrangement can reduce the settlement risk that occurs when one side of a transaction completes before the other. RLUSD already supports liquidity and settlement services for several tokenized investment products.
Nevertheless, Ripple’s latest investments have not stopped XRP’s near-term decline. XRP traded near $1.06 after falling 1.05% over 24 hours, according to the market data.
The token has moved below a late-July symmetrical triangle and trades under its key moving averages. The 50-day exponential moving average near $1.09 now acts as immediate price resistance.
XRP’s main support sits between $1.05 and $1.06. A break below that area could place the psychological $1.00 level within reach, while a move above $1.09 may ease selling pressure.
The broader regulatory backdrop also stays uncertain. The US Senate faces limited time to advance the CLARITY Act before its August recess, while lawmakers continue debating its market structure, ethics, stablecoin and consumer protection rules.