Brazilian securities infrastructure provider CSD BR is putting tokenization into live market use with Ripple, using the XRP Ledger to create blockchain-based records of BTG Pactual investment fund shares.
The project, announced on September 29, is designed to test whether a public blockchain can work alongside Brazil’s existing securities infrastructure without replacing the regulated systems that currently determine ownership and settlement.
CSD BR, which handles the registration, custody and settlement of financial assets in Brazil, will continue to maintain the official records, while the XRP Ledger will provide an additional layer for authorized participants to check and audit ownership information in near real time.
The initiative brings blockchain closer to Brazil’s established financial-market infrastructure while keeping the existing legal and operational framework in place.
Blockchain as a second record
The first assets involved are BTG Pactual investment fund shares already held through CSD BR. These shares will be represented on the XRP Ledger using its Multi-Purpose Token (MPT) standard.
The blockchain records will mirror information held by CSD BR rather than becoming the legally recognized ownership record. “The goal is to evaluate how the technology performs under real operating conditions,” said Daniel Polano Spreafico, Head of Products and Clients at CSD BR.
The setup allows CSD BR to test tokenization without changing the existing settlement process or shifting legal responsibility to the blockchain.
Authorized corporate and banking clients will be able to access the system after completing required Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks. CSD BR will also retain control over important functions, including participant access, asset freezes and the ability to reverse transactions when required by regulators or courts.
Testing tokenization with real transactions
The project moves beyond the type of blockchain experiment that is typically conducted in a sandbox or proof-of-concept environment.
CSD BR has more than 22 trillion Brazilian reais ($4.2 trillion) in registered assets and infrastructure capable of handling millions of transactions within minutes. The company will now be able to assess blockchain performance alongside an existing financial-market system.
“Moving beyond pilots and proofs of concept to a live record-keeping infrastructure in a national capital market is a major milestone,” said Silvio Pegado, Managing Director of Ripple for Latin America.
The immediate questions are practical: whether blockchain can make asset records easier to verify, improve traceability and reduce some of the operational work involved in maintaining financial records.
The partners are not suggesting that the blockchain will immediately replace CSD BR’s existing infrastructure. Instead, the initial design keeps the traditional system at the center while adding an onchain verification layer.
Ripple’s role
Ripple is providing the blockchain infrastructure for the initiative, with the XRP Ledger being used to represent the financial assets.
The XRP Ledger is also being developed for broader financial application beyond asset tokenization. Two proposed upgrades, XLS-65 and XLS-66, would introduce single-asset vaults and fixed-term lending, although both remain under validator voting and are not yet active on the XRPL mainnet.
The partnership fits into Ripple’s broader work with financial institutions exploring blockchain-based representations of traditional assets and securities.
For CSD BR, the project provides a way to test those applications without requiring major changes to its existing infrastructure. BTG Pactual is participating in the first stage, with its investment fund shares serving as the initial assets for the project.
Bigger plans for Brazilian assets
The initial fund-share project could eventually expand beyond record mirroring. CSD BR and Ripple said later stages could involve issuing assets directly on the blockchain and allowing authorized participants to trade them through the new infrastructure.
Assets under consideration include Real Estate Receivables Certificates (CRI) and Agribusiness Receivables Certificates (CRA), which are widely used in Brazil’s fixed-income market.
The platform could also add privacy and confidentiality features as the project develops, an important consideration if more financial instruments and institutions are brought onto the system.
For now, the focus remains on proving that blockchain can operate alongside regulated market infrastructure at scale. If the first phase delivers the expected results, CSD BR could gradually expand the role of the XRP Ledger from a verification tool into a broader part of how tokenized financial assets are issued and traded.
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