- Brazilian financial infrastructure operator CSD BR is using the XRP Ledger to mirror ownership records for BTG Pactual investment fund shares, moving a blockchain tokenization project into live market operations.
CSD BR has begun the first phase of a partnership with Ripple that uses the XRP Ledger (XRPL) as a secondary record and audit layer for financial assets, according to an announcement from Ripple. The project starts with shares in investment funds from BTG Pactual. CSD BR will continue to maintain the official records used for registration, deposit, and settlement, while corresponding ownership information is mirrored on the public blockchain.
The arrangement is designed to give authorized participants another way to verify records without replacing the existing regulated infrastructure.
CSD BR says it has more than 22 trillion Brazilian reais in registered assets. The company is authorized by Brazil's central bank to provide registration, deposit, and settlement services and by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, known as CVM, for registration and deposit services.
The rollout comes as Brazilian regulators are examining how blockchain technology can be incorporated into securities markets without removing existing legal and supervisory controls.
XRP Ledger Becomes a Secondary Record for Fund Ownership
Under the initial structure, BTG Pactual fund shares held through CSD BR are tokenized using the XRP Ledger's Multi-Purpose Token, or MPT, standard. The blockchain representation does not replace the underlying securities or transfer the official ownership record to XRPL. CSD BR remains responsible for the authoritative record, while the blockchain provides an additional source for verification and auditing.
That distinction also limits the scope of the initial deployment. Investors and other market participants continue to interact with the existing financial-market infrastructure rather than being required to move their holdings into a blockchain-native system.
The XRP Ledger's MPT standard was developed for tokenized assets and allows issuers to attach properties and controls to fungible tokens. XRPL documentation also supports authorization mechanisms for MPT holders, while token issuers can configure features such as transfer restrictions and other controls.
CSD BR said the initial environment will be permissioned for corporate and banking clients in Brazil, with participants subject to Know Your Customer and anti-money laundering requirements. The infrastructure also retains controls that are important for regulated securities markets. According to Ripple, CSD BR will control issuance and administration and can freeze assets or reverse transactions when required by regulatory or judicial orders.
The model is therefore closer to an additional blockchain-based verification layer than a wholesale migration of Brazil's securities infrastructure onto a public blockchain. This approach is consistent with the broader institutional move toward tokenized financial assets, where traditional investment products are increasingly being represented on blockchain networks while existing regulatory and custody structures remain involved.
Brazil Is Building a Broader Framework for Tokenized Securities
The CSD BR project arrives as Brazil's securities regulator develops its own framework for testing distributed-ledger technology. In September, CVM technical staff submitted a proposed resolution for a DLT pilot program that would allow experimental operations involving the issuance, distribution, trading, registration, custody, centralized deposit and settlement of securities on distributed-ledger networks.
CVM established its Tokenization Working Group in July to study the technology, conduct tests and develop recommendations covering activities such as securities registration, custody, trading and settlement. The regulator said the proposed pilot would also examine interoperability between networks, technical and operational feasibility, vulnerabilities and potential regulatory gaps.
Against that backdrop, the CSD BR project provides a live example of a regulated market infrastructure operator using blockchain without immediately replacing its existing systems. CSD BR and Ripple said later phases could move beyond record mirroring toward native issuance and trading among authorized participants. Potential assets mentioned for those stages include Brazilian Real Estate Receivables Certificates (CRI) and Agribusiness Receivables Certificates (CRA), both established parts of Brazil's fixed-income market.
The companies also said future development could add confidentiality mechanisms designed for financial-market privacy requirements.
The project does not yet establish that tokenized securities will replace conventional registration or settlement systems. Its immediate purpose is to evaluate how blockchain performs under live operating conditions while the existing official record remains in place.
For the XRP Ledger, the initiative adds another institutional use case beyond payments and digital-asset activity. For Brazil's financial market, it creates a live test of whether blockchain can improve verification and eventually support additional stages of the securities lifecycle within a regulated framework.