XRP Asia Launches to Accelerate XRPL Adoption Across Asian Banks

XRP Asia officially launched on October 3, 2026, marking its debut with a live event at the Grand Hyatt Seoul during Korea Blockchain Week. The new regional organization aims to accelerate XRP Ledger (XRPL) adoption across Asia, support developers and expand institutional use of blockchain-based payment infrastructure.

The launch featured representatives from Woori Bank and Kakao Bank alongside Ripple executive Tatsuya Kohrogi, highlighting XRP Asia’s focus on bringing regulated financial institutions onto XRPL.

Sabrina Tachdjian, formerly VP of Fintech and Payments at the Hedera Foundation, will serve as XRP Asia president. Her experience comes as the organization seeks to move banks beyond blockchain pilots toward production-ready deployments.

South Korea already has several examples of Ripple-related financial infrastructure. Jeonbuk Bank replaced multi-day SWIFT processing with real-time Ripple Payments, while SBI and Kyobo completed a direct yen-to-won stablecoin transfer that avoided using the U.S. dollar as an intermediary.

XRP also maintains strong retail activity in South Korea, repeatedly ranking among the most heavily traded cryptocurrencies on Upbit, with weekly volume reaching roughly $8 billion during some periods.

Japan has also emerged as a major XRPL market. SBI Ripple Asia registered a regulated token issuance platform under Japan’s Fund Settlement Act in March 2026, strengthening the connection between XRPL infrastructure and the country's regulated financial sector. SBI Holdings has also agreed to acquire crypto exchange Bitbank.

XRP Asia’s arrival coincides with important XRPL protocol upgrades. Permission Delegation allows accounts to grant narrowly defined permissions without exposing master keys, supporting institutional separation of duties. The Batch amendment enables multiple transactions to settle together or fail collectively, providing atomic settlement capabilities for complex financial transactions.

Institutional XRPL adoption is also expanding beyond Asia. South Africa’s Absa became the first African bank to offer XRPL-based custody, while the Bank for International Settlements has used the ledger to anchor official statistics.

With Asian banks exploring tokenized deposits, stablecoins and real-time cross-border payments, XRP Asia’s Seoul launch places institutional XRPL adoption at the center of its regional strategy.