Banks Risk 30% of Profits as Ripple Builds One-Stack Tokenization Infrastructure

Ripple’s latest institutional push is increasingly about removing one of the biggest obstacles banks face when moving assets onchain: too many technology vendors.

A fresh BankXRP post highlighted how Ripple’s integration with SettleMint allows institutions to combine custody, issuance, compliance, settlement and servicing inside one operating stack rather than assembling those functions separately.

The partnership itself was announced earlier this month and has already commenced in Asia. But the more important financial angle is the procurement model behind it.

Under the official SettleMint integration, Ripple Custody handles institutional asset security and governance, while SettleMint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform manages the broader lifecycle of tokenized assets.

Banks Could Have $88 Trillion Reason to Simplify

The timing matters because tokenization is moving from experimentation toward a potentially enormous banking market.

Boston Consulting Group estimates digital real-world assets could reach $88 trillion by 2035, representing around 16% of global investable assets under its more aggressive scenario. BCG also estimates banks could have as much as 15% of revenue and 30% of profits at risk if value migrates toward digital-asset competitors.

That helps explain why Ripple is increasingly positioning itself around complete infrastructure rather than a single crypto product.

The company’s earlier custody-to-tokenization pipeline already connected custody, issuance, compliance and settlement around the same $88 trillion opportunity.

Ripple has also expanded the capital-markets side through its ZILO and Licuido investments, adding transfer agency, issuance and collateral-management capabilities.

Traditional approachRipple + SettleMint modelSeparate custody providerRipple CustodySeparate issuance platformIntegrated lifecycle platformSeparate compliance layerBuilt-in compliance controlsSettlement reconciliationConnected settlement workflowMultiple vendor contractsCoordinated stackWhat This Actually Means for XRP

For XRP investors, an important distinction remains.

The SettleMint announcement does not say that participating banks must use XRP, XRPL or RLUSD. No specific customer, blockchain, transaction volume or tokenized asset has been disclosed.

So the partnership should not be presented as direct XRP adoption.

What it does strengthen is Ripple’s wider institutional footprint. The company already offers banks custody, payments, stablecoin infrastructure and tokenization, while the XRP Ledger is separately being developed for institutional finance.

That distinction was important when the original SettleMint deal emerged: Ripple’s growing banking presence can improve the broader XRP ecosystem narrative without automatically creating XRP demand.

The next meaningful proof point will therefore be a named financial institution using the combined stack in production, particularly if it discloses the blockchain, settlement asset and actual transaction volume.