Absa opens crypto access to institutions
The Absa Digital Asset Custody service is now operational. It follows the partnership announced in October 2025, when Ripple made Absa its first major African banking partner for its custody business.
This development extends a trend already visible in African crypto markets, where $205 billion in on-chain flows were recorded over twelve months. This time, it is no longer just about exchanges, fintechs or mobile wallets. A major bank is directly providing the infrastructure that allows institutions to custody their digital assets.
Institutional custody is more complex than a simple wallet. A company must protect its private keys, determine which employees can authorize a transaction, impose multiple levels of validation and have recovery procedures in place in the event of a failure or incident.
Absa says its solution uses secure hardware environments and deterministic key derivation rather than permanently storing the keys. The bank also says it has several governance layers in place so that a single failure cannot compromise the assets.
Robyn Lawson, Head of Digital Product: Custody at Absa CIB, describes this infrastructure as a way to apply to digital assets the security standards already used in traditional finance. Absa provides details on how its custody service works.
Ripple is now moving beyond payments
For Ripple, the deal also shows how far its business has moved beyond its historical image as a blockchain payments specialist.
Ripple Custody now provides banks with infrastructure for key management, transaction controls and governance. The solution can be used to custody cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets.
The technology notably relies on MPC and HSM systems to secure private keys. Ripple also lists several certifications intended for institutional clients, including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II.
Africa is becoming an interesting market for this strategy. Ripple already works with Chipper Cash, VALR and Yellow Card, while its RLUSD stablecoin is being used in several regional initiatives. In April, the company also said that 57% of financial executives surveyed in its 2026 global study preferred working with a provider combining custody, orchestration and compliance rather than managing these components separately.
This institutionalization is accompanying the growth of stablecoins. BrefCrypto recently reported that 27 billion rand worth of USDT had circulated across three major South African platforms in one year.
Banks, stablecoins and custody are therefore beginning to converge.
The $205 billion figure tells a different story
However, the $205 billion figure needs to be used correctly.
It does not mean that the “African crypto market is worth $205 billion.” Chainalysis estimates that sub-Saharan Africa received more than $205 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, compared with approximately $135 billion in the previous period. Growth reached 52%, placing the region third worldwide at the time in terms of growth.
Bitcoin remains particularly important. For crypto purchases made with fiat currency, BTC accounted for 89% in Nigeria and 74% in South Africa, according to Chainalysis.
At the same time, use cases are becoming more diverse. Stablecoins, cross-border payments, remittances, trading and now institutional custody coexist. Standard Bank is also working on stablecoin-related infrastructure, while several fintechs are developing conversions between USDT, USDC, local currencies and mobile money.
This is what makes Absa’s launch interesting. The bank is not necessarily betting on the price of XRP, Bitcoin or any other token. It is positioning itself around the infrastructure required for other institutions to hold these assets.
African crypto markets are therefore gradually changing scale. The $205 billion figure describes the activity that already exists. Absa and Ripple are now building the banking layer that could accommodate part of this activity.
