Institutions want custody that connects to payments and settlement

TL;DR: A Ripple-commissioned BCG report finds institutional custody decisions increasingly hinge on governance, interoperability, and operational integration, with security treated as a baseline requirement.

Key findings

Ripple’s October 21 discussion of Boston Consulting Group research states that banks and investment firms evaluate digital asset custody on more than key storage. Policy controls, interoperability, and the ability to link custody with settlement, payments, and treasury systems are central. BCG estimates that more than 30% of digital assets held outside centralized exchanges use institutional custody models. The figure is an estimate derived from the commissioned research rather than a direct count of all wallets.

Why this matters

The shift affects stablecoins and tokenized securities. A technically secure wallet can be insufficient if approval workflows, reporting, or compatibility with existing systems block deployment. Institutions prioritize operational controls that align with existing governance and audit requirements without compromising blockchain settlement speed.

Operating models emerging

Two approaches are gaining traction: firms may employ multiple custodians under a shared orchestration layer, or adopt integrated end-to-end services that bundle custody with settlement and treasury connectivity.

Context and limitations

Ripple sells custody infrastructure, which makes the framing commercially interested. The industry-wide question remains: which custody model enables conventional institutional controls while preserving on-chain settlement advantages that motivated adoption.