A licensed Brazilian central securities depository is recording securities ownership on a public blockchain for the first time, and it chose the XRP Ledger to do it. CSD BR, which holds more than BRL 22 trillion in registered assets, has begun mirroring Brazilian investment fund records onto XRPL in partnership with Ripple, starting with shares of BTG Pactual funds.
Ripple announced on Sept. 29 that CSD BR will use the public XRP Ledger as an extra record and audit layer while its own systems remain the official source for ownership, registration, deposit and settlement. Unlike a closed proof of concept, the transactions take place within CSD BR’s existing market infrastructure, meaning investors, issuers and other participants continue using the same processes during the first phase.
How the mirroring actually works
BTG Pactual investment fund shares deposited with CSD BR will be represented on XRPL using the network’s Multi-Purpose Token standard. The blockchain copies ownership information so authorized participants can compare it with CSD BR’s official records close to real time. CSD BR keeps control of the assets themselves, and its internal systems remain legally responsible for recording who owns each security and for handling deposits and settlements.
The project uses Ripple’s custody technology alongside native XRPL functions, and access is restricted to corporate and banking customers in Brazil that have completed required Know Your Customer and anti-money laundering checks. The depository can freeze individual assets or reverse a transaction when a regulatory or judicial order requires it, preserving the controls regulators expect from critical market infrastructure.
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. “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,” Spreafico said.
One distinction matters for how the project should be described. Ripple has not tokenized Brazil’s entire BRL 22 trillion of registered assets on XRPL. That figure refers to the total assets registered across CSD BR’s existing infrastructure, while the initial blockchain phase begins with selected BTG Pactual investment fund shares. No individual funds, values or expected transaction volumes were disclosed.
BTG Pactual tests the waters
Luis Furtado, the BTG Pactual partner responsible for market infrastructure, framed the project as a way to test blockchain technology within regulated fund infrastructure while keeping official ownership records intact. “Mirroring fund shares creates a concrete foundation for future developments while preserving current processes and the official record of the assets,” Furtado said.
Brazil’s central bank independently lists the CSD BR system among the country’s authorized financial market infrastructures, with permissions covering securities settlement, centralized depository services and asset registration. The partnership was built under Brazil’s current regulatory framework and does not require new approvals for the first phase, according to Ripple.
From copied records to native assets
If the mirroring phase works as intended, Ripple and CSD BR plan to explore assets issued directly through blockchain infrastructure rather than copied from existing systems. Two Brazilian fixed-income products are already under consideration: Real Estate Receivables Certificates, known locally as CRIs, and Agribusiness Receivables Certificates, or CRAs. No date has been set for either.
Trading between approved participants forms another possible future phase, along with confidentiality tools intended to meet financial market requirements. That work aligns with technical development already underway on XRPL, where developers have been building confidential transfers for Multi-Purpose Tokens using cryptographic tools designed to conceal token balances and transfer amounts while keeping account identities visible on the public ledger.
Institutional momentum on XRPL
The Brazilian rollout follows other institutional tests on the ledger. Earlier this year, Ripple, JPMorgan, Mastercard and Ondo tested the redemption of a tokenized US Treasury product on XRPL, with the blockchain portion completing in roughly five seconds and RLUSD forming part of the settlement process. RWA.xyz data previously reported by crypto.news showed XRPL added roughly 2.6 billion USD in net real-world asset value over six months, second only to larger rivals in inflow terms.
Use of XRP Ledger infrastructure does not necessarily mean institutions must buy or hold large amounts of XRP, a nuance long-term observers will recognize. Institutions can use ledger functions and tokenized assets while XRP’s direct role may remain limited to network fees, account reserves or specific liquidity routes.
Ripple Managing Director for Latin America Silvio Pegado described the move from tests into live record keeping as a major step for regulated blockchain infrastructure. The companies say the technical model could eventually expand beyond Brazilian assets and participants, although no international rollout has been announced.
Market context at publication time: XRP-affiliated ledger activity aside, Bitcoin traded near 83,942 USD, Ether near 2,698.58 USD and Solana near 119.61 USD on Binance at 12:00 UTC, according to the exchange’s spot price data.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
btg fund shares as mpt tokens on xrpl while csd br keeps the official ownership record. boring infrastructure is exactly the kind crypto needs more of
the two record design is smart but auditors are the real bottleneck now. someone has to train actual teams to reconcile against a public chain mirror
auditor training is the hidden cost everyone skips. reconciling against a public chain mirror is a different skill set than matching pdfs and most back offices have zero of it
if the btg shares settle clean through this the rest of the BRL 22 trillion register has a template. first fund is the real pilot to watch
brl 22 trillion in registered assets mirrored to a public chain and the xrpl price barely moves lol. classic
of course it doesnt, the mirror layer burns nothing and creates zero token demand. its an auditor feature in ripple branding. actual settlement volume would be the thing that moves it
the mirroring is for audits, csd br keeps the official ownership records. dont expect token demand from this phase
correct on demand for now but wait for phase two. once settlement moves on chain the token question stops being silly
worth reading carefully: XRPL is only a mirror layer here, CSD BR systems stay the official record. still the first licensed depository doing this on a public chain, which is the actual headline
^ this. everyone screaming xrp number go up missed that csd br keeps the official record, the mirror layer is for auditors
this. the token demand crowd keeps missing that phase one is a pure audit mirror. wait for phase two settlement before pricing anything in
or phase two never comes and the mirror quietly becomes a compliance checkbox. either way btg got free audit redundancy out of it
even as a compliance checkbox the mirror gives btg immutable audit copies for free. worst case this is the cheapest reconciliation insurance in banking
compare and audit in near real time against the official record, that part matters more than the Ripple branding. good structure
worked fund ops in sao paulo, btg shares going first makes sense. their back office is the most digitalized of the big brazilian banks
which is exactly why btg goes first. lowest integration risk for the pilot, the messy back offices come later or never
exactly, btg already runs most of its fund admin digitally so mirroring deposits to xrpl is a small lift for them. the interesting part is whether other depositories copy this two-record setup
BRL 22 trillion in registered assets with BTG Pactual funds going first. Brazil quietly doing more real world asset infrastructure than half of europe
As someone who reconciles fund records for a living, the two record setup is the honest way to start. Europe went straight for ambition and got DLT pilot purgatory instead.
half of europe is further along than consultation papers honestly, lux and the dlt pilots exist. brazil just shipped first, thats the difference
euroclear has been announcing blockchain settlement pilots since 2019 and delivering slide decks. brazil just put 22 trillion in registered assets on a live public ledger
first licensed depository on a public chain and its brazil doing it. meanwhile the eu is still writing consultation papers
europe has the frameworks on paper, brazil has a licensed depository on a live chain. shipping beats consulting, the lux pilots are three years of meetings
the lux dlt pilot has a handful of live settlements total and brazil put 22 trillion brl of register on a public chain. europe keeps mistaking paperwork for progress
using the mpt standard for fund shares while csd br stays the legal record is the boring correct version of tokenization everyone claims to want