CSD BR, which operates in Brazil as a registrar, central securities depository, and settlement system, launched a financial asset tokenization project in partnership with Ripple in a live market environment.
Brazilian financial infrastructure company CSD BR began using the XRP Ledger (XRPL) blockchain as an additional layer for recording and verifying financial assets as part of its partnership with Ripple. The first instruments were shares in BTG Pactual investment funds. The legally authoritative records of the assets continue to be maintained in CSD BR’s systems.
According to CSD BR, more than 22 trillion Brazilian reais in assets are registered within its infrastructure. The company’s systems can process millions of transactions within minutes. Using XRPL will allow the company to assess the impact of distributed ledger technology on transparency, transaction traceability, automation, and the efficiency of financial infrastructure through live transactions.
In the first phase, shares in BTG Pactual investment funds held in custody by CSD BR will be tokenized and represented on the XRP Ledger using the Multi-Purpose Token (MPT) standard.
Responsibilities will be divided as follows:
- CSD BR will maintain the official registry and remain the primary system for asset registration, custody, and settlement.
- XRP Ledger will serve as an additional layer for representing and verifying records.
- Authorized participants will be able to compare data and verify its consistency in near real time.
- The system will be available to corporate and banking clients in Brazil that have completed the customer identification and anti-money laundering procedures required by law.
The project’s architecture combines Ripple’s digital asset custody infrastructure with the XRP Ledger’s native capabilities. Despite the use of a public blockchain, access to tokenized financial instruments will be restricted.
CSD BR will retain full control over asset issuance and administration. In particular, the company will be able to determine which participants are authorized, freeze individual assets, and reverse transactions if required by a regulator or court order.
The project is being implemented under the existing regulatory framework. Its launch didn’t require changes to participants’ legal responsibilities or additional regulatory approvals.
Silvio Pegado, Managing Director of Ripple in Latin America, said the shift from pilot projects and proofs of concept to live recordkeeping infrastructure in a national capital market marked an important milestone for the industry. The partnership with CSD BR demonstrates how distributed ledger technology can be securely integrated into critical financial infrastructure while meeting regulatory requirements.
Luis Furtado, a partner at BTG Pactual responsible for market infrastructure, said duplicating fund share records would lay the foundation for broader use of blockchain solutions in regulated financial markets. At this stage, existing procedures and the official framework for recording financial assets remain unchanged.
According to Daniel Polano Spreafico, Head of Products and Clients at CSD BR, the company deliberately started by duplicating existing records. This approach allows it to test the new technology under real-world conditions without changing existing processes for investors, issuers, and other market participants.
After validating the record duplication model, CSD BR and Ripple plan to gradually expand the use of XRP Ledger. In the future, the infrastructure could be used for the direct issuance of tokenized assets and transactions involving those assets among authorized participants.
The instruments under consideration for subsequent phases include real estate receivables certificates (CRI) and agribusiness receivables certificates (CRA). Both types of securities represent significant segments of Brazil’s fixed-income market.
The developers also plan to introduce additional privacy mechanisms required by financial institutions. The infrastructure initially being developed by CSD BR and Ripple is focused on Brazilian assets and financial institutions. Over time, it is expected to be adapted for new asset classes, new participants, and potential expansion into international markets.
