Ripple and Brazilian securities depository CSD BR have started recording investment fund share ownership on the public XRP Ledger, the first time a licensed central securities depository is writing securities records to a public blockchain. The first assets in the live phase are shares of BTG Pactual investment funds, Ripple said on September 29.
The setup matters because of what it is not. CSD BR keeps its own systems as the official source for ownership, registration, deposit and settlement. The XRP Ledger holds a mirrored copy that authorized participants can compare against the official records close to real time. Ripple has not announced that Brazil’s registered assets are being tokenized on the ledger, and the distinction is not cosmetic.
CSD BR currently has more than BRL 22 trillion in registered assets under its infrastructure. If the mirror model works, it becomes the on-ramp for moving that registration layer onto public chains without touching settlement legality.
How the mirror works
BTG Pactual fund shares deposited with CSD BR are represented on XRPL using the network’s Multi-Purpose Token standard. The blockchain copies the ownership information so authorized participants can verify whether the ledger matches what sits inside CSD BR’s regulated infrastructure.
Access is restricted to corporate and banking customers in Brazil that have completed Know Your Customer and anti-money laundering checks. Ripple’s custody technology runs alongside native XRP Ledger functions. Transactions take place within CSD BR’s existing market infrastructure, so investors, issuers and other participants keep using the same processes they used before the project started.
Daniel Polano Spreafico, CSD BR’s head of products and clients, said the company deliberately started with mirrored records because existing investor and issuer processes can remain unchanged. That choice keeps the regulatory perimeter intact for the first phase.
A licensed central securities depository is recording securities ownership on a public blockchain for the first time – on the XRP Ledger. CSD BR is partnering with Ripple to bring Brazil’s regulated capital markets onchain, starting with BTG Pactual fund shares. – Ripple, on X, September 30, 2026
The regulatory footing
Brazil’s central bank independently lists the CSD BR system among the country’s authorized financial-market infrastructures, with permissions covering the registration and settlement functions the project touches. Ripple says the partnership was built under Brazil’s current regulatory framework and does not require new approvals for the first phase.
That regulatory positioning is what separates this from the wave of tokenization press releases that never leave the demo stage. The official record stays inside the regulated entity. The blockchain adds an audit and verification layer. If the mirror diverges from the official record, the official record wins, and the divergence itself becomes the signal worth investigating.
| Element | Status |
|---|---|
| Official ownership record | Stays with CSD BR systems |
| Blockchain role | Mirrored record and audit layer on XRPL |
| First assets | BTG Pactual investment fund shares |
| Registered assets at CSD BR | Over BRL 22 trillion |
| Access | Brazilian corporate and banking customers with KYC/AML |
From mirrors to native assets
Ripple has laid out a path beyond copied records. The next candidates are receivables tied to Brazil’s real estate and agricultural markets, products known locally as receivables from fiagro-type structures and agribusiness finance. Neither Ripple nor CSD BR has set a date for bringing either asset class onto the ledger as native tokens.
The gap between mirroring and nativeness is where most tokenization projects stall. A mirror is reversible and legally clean. A native asset changes who holds what, which changes the legal questions. CSD BR’s approach puts the hard question off until the mirror has proven itself accurate at scale.
Silvio Pegado, Ripple’s managing director for Latin America, described the move from tests into live record keeping as a major step for regulated blockchain infrastructure. The phrase that matters in his framing is live record keeping, not pilot.
Why Brazil, why now
Brazil has spent several years building the friendliest regulated environment for blockchain finance in the Americas. The central bank runs its own tokenization research through the DREX project, the securities regulator CVM has cleared tokenized offerings, and the banking system is concentrated enough that a handful of institutions can move a whole market. BTG Pactual, one of the country’s largest investment banks, has its own tokenization platform and has issued tokenized instruments since 2019.
For Ripple, the deal lands at a moment when the XRP Ledger needs institutional use cases that are not tied to XRP price action. The ledger has been adding institutional asset activity, and a licensed depository writing records daily is the kind of usage that survives a bear market. XRP itself is not the asset being recorded here, but the ledger that carries the records is.
For CSD BR, the mirror gives a second, independent record of ownership that participants can verify without trusting a single database. In a market with BRL 22 trillion registered, even a small reduction in reconciliation disputes is worth real money. Reconciliation between depositories, registrars and custodians is one of the quiet cost centers of traditional finance, and it is the problem this design actually targets.
The partnership did not identify individual funds, their value or how many transactions are expected during the initial phase. That leaves open how quickly the mirror expands beyond BTG Pactual shares. The next milestones to watch are the first additional fund families added to the mirror and any date set for the real estate and agribusiness receivables.