Ripple invests in UK tokenization platform Licuido

Ripple has made a strategic investment in UK firm Licuido to expand the company’s infrastructure and collateral marketplace on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and support tokenization and secondary trading of fund assets. Licuido is a capital markets tokenization platform that provides an institutional framework for issuers to tokenize funds and a regulated secondary market for collateral trading. Licuido’s management said the funding will accelerate the company’s growth and development on the XRPL. Brian Lynch, Licuido’s CEO and co-founder, commented: “Tokenization, by itself, only solves part of the challenge of unlocking liquidity. Licuido’s platform allows clients to take the next step by delivering issuance, distribution and utility, within a controlled, confidential, and regulated digital capital markets platform.” Lynch added that Ripple’s backing will help institutions convert assets that have sat idle on their balance sheets into liquidity usable on the XRPL. The investment in Licuido was announced alongside a separate investment in Zilo, a firm that provides global transfer agency asset technology for asset managers and wealth businesses. Ripple said the two deals together provide regulated transfer agency, issuance capabilities and collateral mobility on the XRPL to support end-to-end digital fund operations. Nigel Khakoo, senior vice president for trading and markets at Ripple, noted: “Our partnerships with Aviva Investors, Franklin Templeton and DBS demonstrate how asset managers are focused on deploying tokenized fund structures at scale. 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.” Ripple did not disclose the size of its investment. Licuido plans to use the funding to scale technical infrastructure, expand its collateral marketplace and further integrate issuance and distribution processes on the XRPL so asset managers and other institutions can issue and move tokenized securities with regulatory controls. The firms described the deals as building blocks for a regulated capital markets ecosystem on the XRPL that includes transfer agency services, issuance rails and liquidity provisions. Industry participants have been testing tokenized fund structures and digital transfer agency services to reduce settlement times, increase transparency and enable reuse of collateral. Ripple and its partners say these investments provide infrastructure intended to allow regulated institutions to issue tokenized funds while maintaining controls and oversight for regulators and investors.