Ripple and Garanti BBVA Kripto Renew Custody Deal for Major Assets

TLDR

• Garanti BBVA Kripto has extended its partnership with Ripple to continue using its custody technology for securing digital assets.
• The partnership will secure major assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP with Ripple’s institutional-grade solutions.
• Ripple’s acquisition of Metaco in 2023 enhanced the bank’s custody capabilities, integrating IBM’s LinuxONE hardware security modules.
• Garanti BBVA Kripto initially launched in late 2024 and targeted an early adopter group of 14,000 users.
• The long-standing collaboration between BBVA and Ripple spans nearly a decade, starting with testing Ripple’s distributed ledger technology in 2017.

Garanti BBVA Kripto, a subsidiary of Turkey’s second-largest private bank, has renewed its partnership with Ripple. This collaboration ensures Garanti BBVA continues to leverage Ripple’s institutional-grade custody technology to secure digital assets. The deal highlights the bank’s commitment to secure and compliant infrastructure for digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.

Garanti BBVA Kripto Continues Use of Ripple’s Custody Technology

In a statement, Ripple Managing Director Reece Merrick emphasized that Garanti BBVA Kripto would continue to use Ripple’s custody technology. The bank will secure major digital assets, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP. This renewal of the partnership demonstrates Garanti BBVA’s trust in Ripple’s solutions for digital asset security.

Garanti BBVA Kripto first launched its services in late 2024, targeting an initial group of 14,000 early adopters. The continued use of Ripple’s technology is seen as a strong endorsement of the company’s secure, compliant infrastructure for digital assets. Ripple’s technology aims to ensure the safe custody of these digital assets, especially in a market demanding regulatory compliance.

The extended collaboration follows Ripple’s acquisition of Metaco, a custody firm, in 2023. Ripple integrated its software with IBM’s LinuxONE hardware security modules to enhance security for Garanti BBVA. This combination of Ripple’s custody software with IBM’s secure hardware infrastructure highlights the growing focus on regulatory compliance in the digital asset space.

Reece Merrick described the partnership as a vote of confidence in their joint vision for compliant digital asset infrastructure. This collaboration between Ripple, IBM, and Garanti BBVA Kripto underscores the increasing importance of institutional-grade cold storage solutions. Garanti BBVA’s move to adopt these solutions further cements its position in the global digital asset market.

Long-Standing Relationship Between BBVA and Ripple

The partnership between Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Ripple spans nearly a decade. BBVA began testing Ripple’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) in 2017, becoming the first European bank to complete a real-money international transfer using this technology. In 2021, BBVA Switzerland launched a Bitcoin trading and custody service for private banking clients, marking an important step in the bank’s digital asset strategy.

In 2023, Garanti BBVA Kripto was launched to serve the high-inflation Turkish market, where crypto adoption has surged. The collaboration with Ripple and IBM was formally announced in October 2024, with the bank utilizing Ripple’s custody technology to secure digital assets.

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