Brazil’s financial infrastructure is moving asset tokenization into live operations through a partnership between Ripple and CSD BR. The project will test whether blockchain improves transparency, traceability, automation, and efficiency within an existing regulated market framework.
Ripple Brings XRP Ledger to Brazil's BRL 22 Trillion Asset System
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Key Takeaways
- CSD BR has more than BRL 22 trillion in total registered assets.
- BTG Pactual fund shares will be mirrored on the public XRP Ledger.
- Later phases could include native issuance and authorized trading.
XRP Ledger Enters Brazil’s Regulated Asset Infrastructure
Investment fund ownership records in Brazil will gain a blockchain layer for verification under a partnership announced Sept. 29 by CSD BR, an operator that registers financial instruments, safeguards ownership records, and settles transactions, and Ripple. The initial phase covers investment fund shares from Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual. Ripple provides blockchain infrastructure for financial institutions, while the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is the public blockchain supporting the initiative.
CSD BR has more than BRL 22 trillion in registered assets, according to the companies. The fund share mirroring project begins with assets deposited at the operator, whose systems will remain the official ownership record. The announcement describes it as the first use of a public blockchain by a central securities depository to mirror securities ownership records.
Daniel Polano Spreafico, CSD BR’s head of products and clients, said:
“We chose to start with record mirroring because it is the safest and most responsible way to introduce a new technology into critical market infrastructure.”
Current processes for investors, issuers, and other participants will continue during this phase.
The operator is authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil to register financial instruments, safeguard ownership records, and settle transactions by completing transfers between parties. Brazil’s securities regulator, the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), also authorizes its registration and depository services. According to the announcement, its infrastructure can process millions of transactions within minutes.
How Fund Tokens Preserve Institutional Controls
BTG Pactual fund shares will be tokenized using the XRP Ledger’s Multi-Purpose Token standard, which provides configurable rules for financial assets. Multi-Purpose Tokens can restrict holdings to approved users and support freezing or recovering tokens from holders. Ripple’s custody infrastructure, which secures and manages digital holdings, will combine with these native blockchain capabilities.
Participation will be restricted to corporate and banking institutions in Brazil that undergo identity verification and anti-money laundering procedures. CSD BR will control issuance and administration, including participant authorization and the ability to freeze individual assets. It will also retain clawback functionality to recover tokens when a regulatory or judicial order requires it.
Representing conventional financial claims through blockchain tokens is the basis of tokenized real-world assets. Fund interests, bonds, and other instruments can carry rights defined by their governing legal documents. The companies describe CSD BR’s model as operating within the current regulatory framework without altering participants’ legal responsibilities or requiring new approvals.
The partnership builds on a broader institutional offering introduced through Ripple’s expansion in Brazil, announced in March. That offering encompasses payments, custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage services for institutional trading and financing, and treasury management tools for overseeing cash and liquidity. Authorized participants in the new project will also be able to check the consistency of mirrored records in near real time.
Brazil Project Could Extend to Property and Agriculture Debt
Related activity in Brazil includes VERT, a firm that packages financial claims into securities and manages investment funds. Its XRPL private credit platform began operating in July 2025 with a BRL 700 million agribusiness receivables certificate. That system records operational events through the financing lifecycle.
The broader institutional push also encompasses digital asset platform Mercado Bitcoin and its plans to tokenize more than $200 million, announced in 2025. Those plans cover fixed-income and equity-income instruments with restricted access. The CSD BR initiative starts with investment fund holdings before considering other categories of securities.
Successful validation of the mirroring phase could lead to native issuance, meaning the creation of instruments directly on the blockchain, and trading among approved participants. Instruments under consideration include real estate receivables certificates, known as CRI, and agribusiness receivables certificates, or CRA. Both are Brazilian fixed-income securities backed by receivables associated with their respective sectors.
BTG Pactual’s partner responsible for market infrastructure, Luis Furtado, described its participation as a way to apply blockchain to the fund market through regulated infrastructure and live transactions. CSD BR’s roadmap also envisions advanced confidentiality mechanisms to meet financial market privacy requirements, with potential expansion into further asset classes, additional participants, and international markets.
