South African Bank Absa Taps Ripple for Crypto Custody
Ripple has partnered with major South African bank Absa to provide digital asset custody services to Absa’s customers, marking Ripple's first major custody collaboration in Africa. Absa, which manages over $119 billion in assets, will use Ripple’s infrastructure to secure custody for tokenized assets and cryptocurrencies. The move is driven by rising demand for secure, compliant digital asset infrastructure in emerging markets. This partnership expands Ripple’s African footprint, following recent collaborations with payment provider Chipper Cash and digital asset launches such as the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin. Ripple has been accelerating its institutional custody efforts, previously partnering with banks and fintech firms in Bahrain, Spain, South Korea, and globally with HSBC. Meanwhile, global interest from traditional finance in crypto is growing, with large institutions like BlackRock and Morgan Stanley expanding crypto offerings, custodian banks piloting tokenized deposits, and sovereign wealth funds in Luxembourg and Norway increasing Bitcoin exposure. These developments highlight deepening integration between traditional finance and the crypto industry worldwide.
