Ripple has invested in the UK companies ZILO and Licuido to build a reseller layer

Ripple has announced strategic investments in two UK-based fintech companies, ZILO and Licuido, expanding existing partnerships into equity stakes that will bring regulated transfer agent services to market.

8/4/20264 min read

Transfer agent function

ZILO has launched an integrated platform combining traditional transfer agent functionality with the ability to issue digital assets. The transfer agent is an operational function situated between the fund manager and investors, maintaining a physical register of ownership, processing subscriptions and withdrawals, calculating net asset value, and ensuring that legal records of who owns how many units of a fund are always accurate and compliant with jurisdictional regulatory requirements at all times.

The role of the transfer agent function in the tokenized fund infrastructure is particularly important because it creates a bridge between on-chain token records and off-chain legal ownership registers that regulators require funds to maintain. An XRP Ledger token representing a unit of Aviva Investors money market fund only makes economic sense if the legal register maintained by the managed transfer agent confirms that the token holder has the right to exercise control over the underlying asset. Without that legal bridge, on-chain tokens representing fund shares may be commercially attractive but legally incomplete, and institutional investors with fiduciary obligations requiring them to hold assets through properly managed custody and management structures cannot utilize them.

ZILO CEO Phil Goffin said Ripple's investment will accelerate ZILO's progress by bringing the utility and efficiency of digital markets directly into the fund management layer, where existing infrastructure creates friction, slows settlements, and limits the ability to transfer fund assets between counterparties. According to Traxcn data, ZILO has raised approximately $58.7 million in equity capital, solidifying its position as a well-funded startup with a meaningful operating infrastructure, rather than a revenue-delayed idea.

Complete the delivery and payment process.

Ripple states that its institutional infrastructure combines issuance, custody, collateralized utility, multi-currency investing, and atomic payments, with RLUSD acting as the regulated cash portion for delivery and settlement transactions. Delivery and settlement, the market standard for securities transactions where the transfer of securities and the transfer of cash occur simultaneously rather than sequentially, requires both parts of the transaction to be settled at the same time to eliminate the time gap where one party has delivered but not received, creating credit risk for the other party.

The role of RLUSD as the cash portion in DvP transactions on the XRP Ledger means that when a unit of tokenized funds moves from seller to buyer, the corresponding RLUSD payment is simultaneously transferred in the opposite direction, with both movements completed by the XRP Ledger consensus mechanism rather than through separate instructions for separate systems that must be coordinated later. The atomic nature of the payment, where either both transactions complete or neither completes, eliminates the payment risk that current market practices manage through centralized clearing mechanisms, which increase costs, cause delays, and require participants to maintain collateral in the period between the transaction and final settlement.

Designing RLUSD as a cash transaction directly connects Ripple's stablecoin strategy with its capital market tokenization strategy in a way that gives RLUSD a functional use case beyond payments: it becomes a liquidity vehicle enabling tokenized securities to settle with institutional-level validation on the public ledger.

Institutional validation chain

ZILO and Licuido's investments come after Ripple partnered with Aviva Investors, a UK-based investment management firm with approximately $350 billion in assets under management, in February 2026 to explore tokenizing traditional fund structures on the XRP Ledger. Aviva Investors subsequently tokenized its US Dollar Liquidity Fund on XRPL, which Ripple cited in its August 3rd announcement as proof that institutional adoption had moved beyond the testing phase and toward operational deployment.

Ripple's Senior Vice President of Trading and Markets, Nigel Khakoo, cited partnerships with Aviva Investors, Franklin Templeton, and DBS as evidence that major financial institutions are preparing to scale up their tokenized investment products. Franklin Templeton's existing BENJI tokenized money market fund, operating across multiple chains and having accumulated significant assets under management, and DBS Bank's blockchain-based bond and fund tokenization operations in Singapore offer regional diversity, demonstrating XRPL is a platform not limited to any particular geographic region or type of asset management.

Assessment and Conclusion

ZILO and Licuido's investments, along with Aviva Investors' asset tokenization, complete a crucial part of the institutional crypto fund infrastructure on the XRP Ledger: transfer agent through ZILO, issuance and collateral through Licuido, DvP settlement through RLUSD, and the underlying ledger speed and atomic settlement capabilities of XRPL itself. The remaining gap between this infrastructure and a fully functioning institutional crypto fund market involves regulatory recognition in each target jurisdiction, custodian integration so that on-chain records match off-chain custodian ledgers, and sufficient secondary market liquidity to make collateral movement commercially viable, not just theoretical.

The UK legal context for both ZILO and Licuido is relevant: both companies operate within the FCA's jurisdiction, and the UK's MiCA-compliant cryptocurrency legal framework, set to be finalized on June 30, 2026, provides the legal foundation for FCA-regulated digital asset operations upon which these companies' business models depend, with institutional clients subject to UK legal obligations. The combination of UK legal status and the development of XRPL infrastructure reflects Ripple's strategy of building capital market infrastructure in jurisdictions with advanced legal frameworks, rather than waiting for global regulatory clarity before deploying institutional capabilities.

Disclaimer: The content in this article is for informational, research, data analysis, and reference purposes only regarding the cryptocurrency market. All opinions, assessments, forecasts, or opinions reflect the author's perspective at the time of publication and do not constitute investment advice, solicitations for buying or selling, trading recommendations, advertising, marketing, or promotion of any financial products, services, or cryptocurrencies. Mentions of projects, tokens, protocols, exchanges, wallets, or cryptocurrency service providers (CASPs) are for research, analysis, or informational purposes only and should not be construed as endorsements, recommendations, or guarantees in any way. HCCVenture does not broker, advertise, market, promote, or connect users in Vietnam with any cryptocurrency services from CASPs. HCCVenture does not accept asset custody, investment mandates, manage assets, or execute transactions on behalf of clients. All investment decisions are made entirely through the reader's own research (DYOR), evaluation, and responsibility; HCCVenture is not liable for any losses or damages arising from the use of or reliance on the information presented in this article.

Compiled and analyzed by HCCVenture

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