Ripple has announced two significant developments that expand its role in institutional finance. On October 14, 2026, the company formed a partnership with DriveWealth, a brokerage-as-a-service platform that supplies infrastructure to more than 100 partners worldwide, including fintech firms, digital wallets, and financial institutions offering access to US markets.
The collaboration aims to modernize money movement, settlement, and management across DriveWealth’s global network by incorporating blockchain-based tools.
The partnership addresses a timing gap between trading and funding.
US equities now settle on a T+1 basis, yet cross-border dollar transfers often take longer, which can leave capital idle and raise funding needs for institutions and fintechs.
DriveWealth already supports trading 24 hours a day, five days a week.
The new arrangement seeks to align funding capabilities with that schedule so clients can move capital more flexibly rather than waiting on bank processing windows or cutoff times.Under the agreement, DriveWealth is integrating Ripple’s stablecoin infrastructure for settlement, beginning in Europe with plans to expand to the United States.
The integration uses Ripple USD (RLUSD) on the XRP Ledger along with mint and burn functions.
Clients will be able to fund and manage collateral accounts with stablecoins that convert to cash in near real time, reducing reliance on traditional bank wires. DriveWealth is also integrating Ripple Payments to streamline inbound cross-border transfers from its international partners.
In parallel, the firms are working on digital asset custody support for DriveWealth in Europe, with possible expansion to other markets later.
They are separately exploring equity-financing opportunities through Ripple Prime’s Delta One business, which covers institutional services for US equities and equity derivatives.
DriveWealth CEO Naureen Hassan noted that the platform has enabled extended trading hours and now needs funding tools that match market activity so capital can continue working instead of remaining idle overnight or over weekends.
Ripple’s senior vice president of stablecoins, Jack McDonald, described the collaboration as growing from an initial cross-border settlement challenge into a broader effort spanning trading, custody, and settlement.
The companies plan to discuss the partnership further at Ripple Swell in New York on October 28.
Separately, Ripple continues to expand its institutional footprint in South Korea, with efforts spanning remittances and government-bond settlement.
On the same day as the DriveWealth announcement, Ripple disclosed a strategic partnership with Meritz Securities, marking its first collaboration with a Korean securities firm and its fourth Korean institutional partnership in 2026.
The firms will explore bringing Ripple Custody—a bank-grade platform for secure storage, transfer, and settlement of digital assets—and Ripple’s tokenization infrastructure into Korea’s capital markets.
Work will begin within Meritz’s existing securities operations and current regulations, then expand in stages as Korea’s digital asset framework develops.
Meritz is reviewing potential opportunities including spot digital-asset ETFs, fractional investments, security tokens, trading platforms, and KRW-denominated stablecoins.This follows earlier 2026 agreements.
In April, Ripple partnered with Kyobo Life Insurance to pioneer blockchain-based settlement of tokenized Korean government bonds using Ripple Custody, aiming to shift from typical two-day cycles toward near-real-time execution while assessing technical and regulatory feasibility and exploring stablecoin payment rails.
In August, Jeonbuk Bank became the first Korean regional bank to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border remittances, enabling 24/7 settlement in seconds to minutes for business clients such as import-export companies, technology startups, and online content creators—replacing multi-day traditional transfers.
Kbank, Korea’s first internet-only bank, is also deploying institutional digital-asset wallet infrastructure through Ripple Custody.
These steps position Ripple across banking, insurance, payments, and capital markets in Korea while advancing always-on funding infrastructure for global brokerage partners. Both announcements reflect the company’s focus on regulated institutional use cases for payments, custody, and tokenization.