Key Points:
- Ripple has partnered with SettleMint to provide Asian financial institutions with integrated custody, tokenization and digital asset lifecycle management solutions.
- Coincheck Group and DFNS are developing institutional-grade wallet and custody infrastructure for Japan, supporting more than 100 blockchain networks.
- Asia-Pacific recorded a 69% year-over-year increase in crypto value received, underscoring growing demand for regulated digital asset infrastructure.
Asia’s digital asset market is entering a new phase as blockchain companies and financial technology providers compete to build the custody and tokenization infrastructure needed by institutional investors. Ripple and Coincheck Group are among the latest firms to announce strategic partnerships targeting this market, focusing on secure custody, asset issuance and transaction management as financial institutions increasingly explore blockchain-based financial products.
The deals come as digital asset activity expands across the Asia-Pacific region while governments develop regulatory frameworks designed to bring crypto closer to traditional financial markets.
Ripple targets institutional custody and tokenization
Ripple has partnered with digital asset infrastructure provider SettleMint to offer financial institutions solutions covering custody, issuance and management of tokenized assets throughout their lifecycle.
The partnership combines Ripple’s institutional custody infrastructure, Ripple Custody, with SettleMint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform. The companies said the integration is intended to reduce the complexity faced by institutions seeking to secure and manage digital assets.
For banks and other regulated financial firms, custody represents a critical infrastructure layer. Institutions need systems capable of controlling wallets, managing transactions and maintaining governance processes while meeting internal risk and compliance requirements.
By connecting custody with tokenization and asset lifecycle management, the partnership aims to address several of those requirements through an integrated infrastructure stack.
Coincheck and DFNS focus on Japan
A day before Ripple’s announcement, Coincheck Group partnered with wallet infrastructure provider DFNS to develop digital asset wallet technology and custody services for institutional participants in Japan.
DFNS provides wallet-as-a-service infrastructure supporting more than 100 blockchain networks. Its platform includes transaction lifecycle management, workflow orchestration and governance controls.
The partnership reflects a broader institutional trend in which financial companies are seeking infrastructure that can support multiple blockchain networks rather than building separate systems for individual assets.
Japan is also moving toward a regulatory framework that treats crypto more similarly to traditional financial assets. Parliament passed revisions in July classifying crypto assets as financial assets under the country’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
That regulatory shift could increase demand for compliant custody and wallet infrastructure as financial institutions gain clearer pathways into digital assets.
Asia’s expanding digital asset market
The institutional infrastructure push comes against a backdrop of rapidly increasing crypto activity across Asia-Pacific. Chainalysis’ 2025 global adoption index ranked the region as the fastest-growing for onchain crypto activity, with the value received increasing 69% year over year.
The growth creates an opportunity for infrastructure providers, but also raises the importance of security, governance and regulatory compliance. As institutions move beyond cryptocurrency trading toward tokenized securities and other blockchain-based financial products, custody providers may increasingly become strategic components of financial-market infrastructure.
The next stage of Asia’s digital asset expansion is likely to depend on whether these platforms can bridge the operational requirements of traditional finance with the technical capabilities of blockchain networks. Partnerships such as Ripple-SettleMint and Coincheck-DFNS suggest that competition is shifting from simply providing access to crypto toward building the institutional rails required to issue, custody and manage tokenized assets at scale.
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