Ripple (XRP) says new BCG research finds institutional custody is shifting from safekeeping toward governance, interoperability and integration.
Ripple (XRP) said on Wednesday that newly commissioned Boston Consulting Group research frames digital asset custody as more than safekeeping, arguing that governance, interoperability and integration are becoming central selection criteria for institutions. The company’s overview of the report, published Oct. 21, 2026, said the shift matters because stablecoins, tokenized assets and blockchain-based payments are moving beyond pilots and into operational use.
According to Ripple’s summary of the BCG report, more than 30% of digital assets, excluding holdings on centralized exchanges, are now held through institutional custody models, and that share continues to grow. The report, titled Beyond Safekeeping: Custody as the Operating Layer Beneath Digital Finance, says regulatory clarity from frameworks such as MiCA in Europe and the GENIUS Act in the United States is making safekeeping and key management baseline requirements rather than differentiators.
The research, as described by Ripple, says institutions are increasingly evaluating custody providers on enterprise-grade governance and policy controls, interoperability across networks and integration with existing financial infrastructure. It also highlights rising bot and AI activity as a factor increasing the importance of governance and approval controls alongside cryptography. On that basis, the report characterizes custody as an operating layer that allows institutions to govern, move and use assets across financial workflows, rather than merely hold them.
Ripple said the report finds custody models are diversifying. It cited Wallet-as-a-Service gaining traction among retail- and payments-focused fintechs, while large banks are increasingly licensing self-custody technology and building client products on top of it.
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