HSBC Adoption of Metaco Platform Could Drive Interest in XRP Ledger

Supporters of Ripple’s XRP Ledger reportedly see a collaboration of Ripple-owned infrastructure provider Metaco and financial institution HSBC as a sign that banks will adopt the ledger protocol and the XRP token.

That collaboration, which was announced earlier this month, has led supporters to believe the ledger and token will gain further prominence, CoinDesk reported Monday (Nov. 27).

The correlation between the products of Ripple and the banking clients of Metaco is indirect but real, Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani said in the report.

“There is an indirect link, which is that the adoption of Ripple and Metaco’s solutions further promotes the adoption of the XRPL as a protocol,” Treccani said in the report. “Every success of Ripple the company is also a success for the XRP Ledger.”

HSBC said in a Nov. 8 press release that it is using Metaco’s institutional platform, Harmonize, as part of the bank’s new custody service for digital assets.

The bank plans to launch a new digital assets custody service for institutional clients in 2024, complementing its platform for issuing digital assets and its offering for tokenized physical gold, according to the release.

“We’re seeing increasing demand for custody and fund administration of digital assets from asset managers and asset owners, as this market continues to evolve,” Zhu Kuang Lee, chief digital, data and innovation officer, securities services at HSBC said in the release. “Through key partnerships, HSBC is delivering the next-generation custody infrastructure that will be scalable and secure.”

Ripple acquired Metaco in May for $250 million, saying the deal will help Ripple tap into an institutional crypto custody market that will grow to $10 trillion by 2030.

The company added that Metaco will continue to operate as its own brand, led by Treccani, and will gain access to Ripple’s base of hundreds of clients and greater capital and resources.

“Custody is a key facet of the infrastructure required for enterprise crypto services,” Ripple President Monica Long said at the time. “Adding these capabilities to Ripple’s already growing product solutions means we can continue to support customers as they look to utilize crypto and blockchain for real-world use cases across all phases of adoption.”

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