Ripple Labs has announced a significant extension of its strategic partnership with Turkish financial institution Garanti BBVA. The bank will continue to utilize Ripple's institutional-grade custody technology, powered by the Metaco platform, to secure major digital assets for its retail customers, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP.
Ripple Managing Director Reece Merrick announced the renewal on social media platform X, describing Garanti BBVA Kripto as "our Turkish partner." He stated, "This renewal is a massive vote of confidence in our joint vision for secure, compliant digital asset infrastructure." The deal extends an existing relationship, with Garanti BBVA attesting to its confidence in Ripple's custody solutions.
The partnership leverages technology from Ripple's 2023 acquisition of custody firm Metaco, integrated with IBM's hyper-secure LinuxONE hardware security modules. This combination provides the bank with a secure key management and governance infrastructure. The initial pilot program launched in late 2024, targeting approximately 14,000 early adopters and offering services for BTC, ETH, XRP, Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), USDC, and CHZ.
This development is part of a long-standing relationship between the broader BBVA group and Ripple, which began in 2017 when BBVA became the first European bank to test Ripple's distributed ledger technology for real-money international transfers. Garanti BBVA Kripto was launched in 2023 specifically to serve the high-inflation Turkish market, where cryptocurrency adoption has surged.
In a separate but related regulatory milestone, Ripple recently received a "Green Light Letter" from Luxembourg's Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). This is a preliminary approval for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license. Final authorization would grant Ripple "passporting" rights to offer services across the entire European Economic Area, adding to its portfolio of over 75 global regulatory licenses.
