Ripple and Coincheck Group have each announced new digital asset custody infrastructure partnerships in Asia, with both efforts aimed at institutional adoption.
Ripple partners with SettleMint on custody and tokenized asset management
Ripple said Tuesday that it entered a strategic partnership with digital asset infrastructure company SettleMint. The two companies will combine Ripple Custody, Ripple’s institutional digital asset custody infrastructure, with SettleMint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform, or DALP.
The combined offering is designed for financial institutions and covers custody, issuance and management of tokenized assets across the full asset lifecycle. Ripple said the partnership is intended to give institutions a less complex way to secure digital assets.
Coincheck Group teams up with DFNS in Japan
A day earlier, digital asset service provider Coincheck Group partnered with wallet infrastructure provider DFNS to build digital asset wallet technology and custody services in Japan.
According to the announcement, DFNS’s wallet-as-a-service platform gives institutions full transaction lifecycle management on a single platform, including workflow orchestration and governance controls. The platform supports more than 100 blockchain networks.
Both deals target institutional infrastructure gaps
Both partnerships are aimed at expanding institutional digital asset services and addressing the infrastructure gap that has been holding back entry by regulated financial institutions.
Asia-Pacific growth and regulation form the backdrop
Chainalysis said in its 2025 global adoption index that the Asia-Pacific region was the fastest-growing area for onchain crypto activity, with value received rising 69% year over year.
At the same time, countries across the region are building their own cryptocurrency regulatory frameworks. In July, Japan’s parliament passed revisions classifying crypto assets as financial assets under the country’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama also signaled in January that crypto should be brought under the same umbrella as traditional finance assets, saying the goal was to ensure citizens would “benefit from digital and blockchain-based assets.”