DriveWealth and Ripple Partner to Launch Blockchain-Powered Global Investing Rails

DriveWealth is partnering with Ripple to integrate blockchain-based settlement and custody into its global brokerage infrastructure. By adopting Ripple’s stablecoin and payment rails, the firm aims to eliminate the friction between T+1 equity settlement and slow cross-border bank transfers, allowing fintechs and institutional clients to manage capital with 24/7 liquidity.

What was announced

The partnership focuses on four primary pillars: stablecoin settlement, cross-border payments, digital asset custody, and equity financing. DriveWealth will integrate Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to facilitate settlement, initially launching in Europe with plans for a U.S. expansion. This allows clients to fund and manage collateral accounts using stablecoins that convert to cash in near real time, bypassing traditional bank wire delays.

Additionally, DriveWealth is adopting Ripple Payments to streamline how funds from global partners enter its ecosystem. On the custody side, the firms are collaborating to support digital asset storage in Europe before scaling to other markets. The agreement also includes an exploration of equity financing through Ripple Prime’s Delta One business, aimed at expanding institutional capabilities for U.S. equities and derivatives.

By bringing its treasury and custody infrastructure onto Ripple’s rails, DriveWealth provides its 100+ global partners—including digital wallets and fintechs—a unified, real-time view of holdings across dollars, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies. This shift addresses the "always-on" nature of modern trading, ensuring that capital does not sit idle during weekends or bank holidays. The integration will leverage Ripple’s mint and burn capabilities alongside the XRPL to ensure that capital can move whenever it is needed, regardless of cross-border transfer windows or bank cutoff times.

"We've already enabled 24/5 trading; now we need the funding to match, so clients can move with the markets instead of waiting for them,"

Naureen Hassan

The companies involved

DriveWealth is a global Brokerage-as-a-Service platform that provides the underlying infrastructure for modern investing. The firm enables more than 100 partners, ranging from fintech startups to established financial institutions, to offer their users access to U.S. equity markets. By abstracting the complexities of brokerage operations, DriveWealth has become a central node in the retail and institutional trading landscape, focusing on fractional trading and embedded finance solutions.

Ripple is a provider of blockchain and crypto solutions for financial institutions, known for its focus on cross-border payments and institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure. The company holds more than 85 regulatory licenses globally and has spent over a decade developing the XRP Ledger and associated payment protocols. Ripple has recently expanded its product suite to include stablecoin issuance and institutional custody, positioning itself as a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized technology. Jack McDonald, who serves as SVP of Stablecoins at Ripple, was previously associated with PolySign, Inc., reflecting the company's deep ties to the institutional digital asset custody space.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed Ripple’s aggressive expansion into the stablecoin and institutional custody sectors. We recently covered how Standard Chartered Launches Institutional Custody for Ripple USD (RLUSD) on XRP Ledger, a move that signaled growing tier-one bank interest in Ripple's stablecoin ecosystem. This followed reports on TrustLinq and Ripple Expand Partnership to Enable Direct RLUSD Fiat Payments Globally.

In the institutional space, we reported on how Ripple Prime Expands Partnership with Brevan Howard for Multi-Asset Brokerage, highlighting the company's move into sophisticated trading services. Furthermore, the scale of the underlying ledger was underscored when t54 Labs Hits 10 Million Agentic Transactions on XRP Ledger as AI Economy Scales, demonstrating the increasing volume of activity on the XRPL.

What this means

This partnership highlights a critical tension in modern finance: the speed of asset trading has outpaced the speed of the money moving behind it. As U.S. markets move toward T+1 settlement, traditional correspondent banking rails are becoming a liability for global brokerages. By leveraging RLUSD and Ripple’s payment rails, DriveWealth is effectively challenging the dominance of legacy wire transfers in the brokerage space. This puts pressure on traditional clearing houses and custodian banks to modernize their own cross-border capabilities. The move also validates the role of regulated stablecoins as a legitimate tool for institutional liquidity management rather than just a retail trading vehicle, raising questions about how quickly competitors will be forced to adopt similar digital rails.