Ripple Expands Custody Business to Offer 'Bank-Grade' Service to Crypto Firms

• Ripple, a provider of digital asset infrastructure, has introduced new functionality to its custody service
• The company is associated with the XRP token, which rose as much as 3.75% Thursday, its biggest intraday gain in almost two weeks, Coindesk Indices data show.

Ripple, a provider of digital asset infrastructure, added functionality to its custody service to offer crypto businesses "bank-grade" technology for securing digital assets.

The new features include integration with the XRP Ledger, whose developers went on to help found Ripple, expanding liquidity through the provision of XRPL-based tokens and a native decentralized exchange (DEX), which could allow companies to tokenize and manage real-world assets (RWAs) as well as other cryptocurrencies on XRPL.

Ripple aims is to bring "the benefits of bank-grade custody technology to fintechs and crypto businesses," the company said Thursday. "The amount of crypto assets custodied is expected to reach at least $16T by 2030, and moreover, 10% of the world’s GDP is expected to be tokenized by 2030. As such, companies need secure, compliant and flexible options to store their crypto."

The company bought Switzerland-based crypto custody provider Metaco for $250 million last year. It agreed to buy Standard Custody & Trust Co. in February.

XRPL's native token, XRP, rose as much as 3.75% Thursday, its biggest intraday gain since Sept. 29, Coindesk Indices data show. The token subsequently pulled back, but remains over 1.8% higher since midnight UTC, comfortably outperforming the wider crypto market, which has gained just 0.2%, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20).

Read More: Ripple Partners With Brazilian Exchange Mercado Bitcoin to Offer Business-Focused Payments Solution