Ripple and SBI are redefining XRP DeFi, targeting a billion-dollar yield stream that ignores on-chain mechanics

SBI Ripple Asia signed a memorandum of understanding with Doppler Finance to explore XRP-based yield infrastructure and real-world asset tokenization on the XRP Ledger, the firms said Dec. 17.

According to information shared with CryptoSlate, firms said they will explore collaboration on yield infrastructure for XRP, which lacks native staking, as well as RWA tokenization flows on XRPL.

The companies framed it as SBI Ripple Asia’s first partnership with an XRPL-native protocol.

They also appointed SBI Digital Markets as the institutional custodian with segregated custody.

Building regulated XRP yield rails for institutional adoption

According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Financial Institutions Directory, SBI Digital Markets Pte. Ltd. is a Capital Markets Services Licensee that includes custodial services and dealing in capital market products.

It is also listed as an Exempt Financial Adviser, which reinforces the custody-and-compliance framing.

The structure points to a broader effort to make XRP “productive” by routing it into yield sources while keeping assets in a regulated custody wrapper.

In practice, that shifts the product conversation away from on-chain staking mechanics and toward balance-sheet-friendly rails: custody segregation, eligibility controls, disclosures, and the generation and reporting of the return stream.

Doppler Head of Institutions Rox Park said the firms will explore yield and tokenization infrastructure on XRPL.

An SBI Ripple Asia spokesperson described the work as expanding institutional access to on-chain products through compliance-aligned design.

The immediate market context is that XRPL’s DeFi footprint remains small relative to Ethereum-style venues, even as stablecoin and tokenization activity have been building.

XRPL’s DeFi push: institutional access, early traction, and market limits

According to DefiLlama’s XRPL dashboard at the time of capture, XRPL had $64.4 million in total value locked (TVL) and $347 million in stablecoin market cap (up 13% over the past 7 days).

RLUSD accounted for 78.90% of XRPL stablecoins, with DEX volume at $5.7 million over 24 hours and $35.8 million over seven days.

RWA.xyz’s XRPL page listed $212 million in distributed asset value, $239 million in represented asset value, 50 RWAs, and $327 million in stablecoin market cap (up 38% over 30 days).

It also showed $564 million in 30-day stablecoin transfer volume.

On RWA.xyz’s global view, distributed asset value was $18.74 billion, and total stablecoin value was $300.18 billion.

Ethereum alone showed over $12 billion in total RWA value and $171 billion in stablecoin market cap, a sizing gap that frames why a custody-led institutional wedge matters for XRPL’s growth path.

Because XRP does not natively stake, any “XRP yield” wrapper ultimately depends on external return streams and the governance around them.

The protocol has described expanding CeDeFi-style strategies and exploring options-based sources alongside other approaches.

How XRP Could Generate Yield Without Native Staking

A second route is tokenized cash-equivalent yield, where XRP exposure can be paired with or rotated into tokenized T-bills or money-market funds.

This is an area Ripple has already been seeding on XRPL through partners, including tokenized treasury products that can mint and redeem using RLUSD.

A third route is credit primitives on XRPL itself, if and when they mature, including the proposed XRPL-native lending primitive (XLS-66d) under discussion in the XRPL Standards process on GitHub.

If the SBI Ripple Asia and Doppler work progresses from exploration to product, the adoption math can scale quickly relative to existing XRPL baselines.

Circulating supply sits around 60.49 billion XRP, and the spot price is near $1.91.

Even routing a fraction of circulating supply into a yield wrapper produces nine-figure AUM:

For firms that can package these flows with custody, compliance, and reporting, the commercial incentive looks more like fee revenue than token beta.

Using a range model rather than asserting pricing, a 50–150 basis point all-in envelope on $1.14 billion AUM implies roughly $5.7 million to $17.1 million in annual revenue.

That is why regulated custody is not a side detail in the announcement.

It is the product’s distribution channel and the control plane that determine which investors can use it and under what disclosure regime.

Regulated custody, tokenization, and the revenue case behind XRP’s next phase

The timing also intersects with tokenization forecasts and payments demand that are not XRPL-specific but shape the addressable market.

According to a 2022 Ripple and BCG tokenization report (distributed via ADDX materials), tokenized RWA projections are $9.4 trillion by 2030 and $18.9 trillion by 2033, alongside a cited 53% CAGR assumption.

McKinsey has separately argued that tokenization in financial services is moving from pilot to scale.

On the payments side, Artemis’ Stablecoin Update for October 2025 reported stablecoin payments rising from $6.0 billion in February to $10.2 billion in August, an increase of 70%.

It is also estimated that more than $136 billion has been settled since 2023, a backdrop that explains why tokenized cash, settlement stablecoins, and yield-bearing cash equivalents are converging into a single product category.

Regulatory pushback remains part of the equation

According to Reuters reporting on IOSCO’s tokenization work, the securities watchdog has warned that tokenization can introduce new risks or amplify existing ones, including concerns about market integrity and investor protection, even where efficiency gains exist.

Those concerns map directly onto how an institutional XRP yield wrapper would be evaluated.

They include what token holders legally own, how redemption and settlement work when the underlying asset is off-chain, whether strategy returns are auditable, and how liquidity mismatches are handled when on-chain transfers can be instant but off-chain servicing windows are not.

If yield sources include derivatives or basis strategies, the gating issue becomes transparency into positions, counterparties, risk limits, and liquidation waterfalls.

It also includes whether custody segregation is paired with reporting that meets institutional controls.

XRPL’s own roadmap provides tools that better align with the “permissioning and controls” thesis than with the “farm APY” model.

XRPL.org documents Multi-Purpose Tokens, which add metadata and transfer control features designed for tokenization.

It also documents Deep Freeze, which provides issuer-level controls to restrict frozen holders.

The roadmap also includes Credentials for on-ledger attestations that can support permissioned flows.

Those primitives are relevant if SBI Ripple Asia and Doppler aim to build yield and RWA rails that can be used by institutions requiring eligibility checks, transfer restrictions, and defined issuer powers under legal agreements.

For now, the announcement commits the parties to exploration under an MOU and names SBI Digital Markets as the custody and compliance anchor.

That leaves the next milestones to product design: the eligible investor scope, the yield source mix, disclosure and attestations, token form factor, redemption mechanics, and how on-ledger controls are actually used in production rather than described in documentation.

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