DSRV and SBI Ripple Asia Launch Joint Study on XRPL for Korea–Japan Cross-Border Payments

• DSRV and SBI Ripple Asia launched joint research on Korea-Japan remittance and payments, focusing on regulation, operations, and system integration.
• The initiative will assess XRPL for institutional payment and settlement flows, including speed, cost, compliance needs, and integration with existing rails.

DSRV and SBI Ripple Asia have launched a joint research initiative focused on blockchain use in the Korea–Japan remittance and payments corridor. The work targets deployment challenges that often slow cross-border payment projects. The main targets include regulatory alignment across Japan and South Korea, operating processes suited to bank and payment-provider workflows, and system designs connected to existing settlement rails.

The study explores how blockchain-enabled services could interoperate with the current payment infrastructure in the two East Asian economies. Rather than proposing a new consumer product, the research aims to examine compliance requirements, outline the operational steps needed for stable processing, and define integration patterns for payment operators.

The initiative will assess the XRP Ledger (XRPL) as a candidate infrastructure layer for payment and settlement flows. The assessment covers technical characteristics relevant to institutional use. These include transaction speed, cost, and support for controlled participation models

XRPL expanded on-chain settlement with the new XLS-85 Token Escrow feature, which now supports IOUs and Multi-Purpose Tokens in addition to XRP. As we reported, the upgrade also updates key escrow transactions and requires a 0.2 XRP reserve for each escrowed asset.

Japan-Korea Cross-Border Payments on XRPL

Japan and South Korea have been adjusting rules for digital-asset and blockchain-linked financial services, including frameworks connected to stablecoin activity. The two markets use different payment systems, follow varying settlement oversight rules, and apply diverse operational procedures.

The joint study addresses these gaps by comparing the two environments and identifying areas where rule sets, reporting needs, and operating standards must align for a cross-border service to function reliably.

From an infrastructure perspective, the project evaluates how a blockchain layer could sit alongside remittance networks, bank core systems, and payment gateways. Topics include message flows, reconciliation steps, liquidity management, and monitoring processes that support continuous operation. The work also examines challenges that can arise when connecting public blockchain infrastructure to institution-grade controls. These include identity verification, transaction screening, and auditability requirements.

SBI Ripple Asia plans to apply the research outputs to future planning for blockchain-enabled remittance and payment services in the Japanese and Korean markets. The companies also expect the research to inform approaches for linking cross-border payment activity with stablecoin-related businesses across multiple countries.

Earlier this month, SBI Holdings launched its first on-chain security token bond offering for retail investors in Japan. CNF noted that investors receive XRP at subscription and additional XRP on interest payment dates in March 2027, 2028, and 2029.

At the time of reporting, XRP price was trading at $1.36, up 2.67% in 24 hours, with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.87 billion.