BNY Holds $63 Trillion for Clients and Will Now Custody XRP. What If 0.1% of That Went Into XRP? - 24/7 Wall St.

BNY Mellon has expanded its partnership with Ripple to include custody services for XRP and Ripple's stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD). The deal also incorporates tokenized trade finance operations running on Ripple's blockchain. The news comes as BNY reported $63.4 trillion in assets under custody and administration as of September 30, 2026, with XRP holders speculating about potential price impacts if even a fraction of those assets were to flow into the cryptocurrency.

XRP traded at $1.32 on October 27, 2026, up 2.3% over 24 hours, though it remains down 13% over the past month and 28.3% since December 31, 2025. BNY shares traded near $148, up less than 1% in the session following the announcement.

BNY's Digital Asset Strategy

BNY has been RLUSD's primary custodian since July 9, 2025, holding the cash and U.S. Treasuries that back each token. The bank reported $5.68 billion in Q3 2026 revenue, with fees up 12% year over year to $4.08 billion. Net interest income rose 15% to $1.42 billion, and adjusted earnings per share totaled $2.37.

However, BNY's digital-asset work has primarily focused on dollars rather than tokens like XRP. The bank holds stablecoin reserves and services tokenized money market funds for clients such as BlackRock, but has disclosed no digital-asset revenue or custody balance specifically for XRP.

Custody Doesn't Equal Demand

A custodian simply holds whatever assets its clients choose to own. With XRP custody, BNY will hold coins for clients but won't purchase any for its own balance sheet. Most of BNY's $63.4 trillion in assets consists of stocks, bonds, and fund shares already owned by pensions, insurers, and asset managers.

The trade-finance operations also don't specify which asset will settle invoices, with RLUSD being the more likely payment method given BNY's existing relationship with Ripple's stablecoin. If invoices settle in RLUSD, XRP's role would likely be limited to network fees.

The 0.1% Speculation

XRP holders have calculated that 0.1% of BNY's $63.4 trillion would equal $63.4 billion—75.7% of XRP's entire market value of $83.8 billion. However, this scenario would require clients to sell other holdings and buy XRP themselves, with BNY merely holding the coins.

Market value can swing more dramatically than the actual cash entering a cryptocurrency, as only a fraction of XRP's supply trades daily. Buying pressure can push prices up more significantly when sellers are scarce, but the same buying has less impact once long-term holders begin selling into that demand.