Lee Eun-jin, Ripple Asia-Pacific (APAC) sales director, said on the 13th, "In the future, the winners in the virtual asset market are more likely to be the institutions that build the most reliably controlled and executable structures, rather than the ones that move the fastest."
At a lecture at the Westin Josun Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, on the 2026 Future Finance Forum hosted by ChosunBiz, the director stated accordingly, "The digital asset market is no longer at the experimental stage; it is entering an institution-centered expansion phase."
The director pointed to "custody" services as the core competitiveness in the digital asset era. Custody is a service that receives customers' virtual assets in trust for safekeeping and management and, upon customer request, carries out asset transfer after internal approval procedures.
The director said, "In the past, custody was understood simply as a function to keep assets safe, but as the market matures, its role is changing completely," adding, "It is now becoming the core infrastructure for institutions to decide how to control and move digital assets and under what policies to operate them."
The director particularly noted the growth potential of the real-world asset tokenization (RWA) market. The size of the global real-world asset tokenization market is projected to expand from about $600 billion last year to $18.9 trillion by 2033.
It was emphasized that the core of tokenization is closer to a redesign of financial operating structures than to simple technological innovation. The director explained, "Tokenization is a way to reduce the accumulated complexity, inefficiency, and unproductive segments in the existing financial system," adding, "By automating issuance, settlement, and compliance processes and reducing intermediary steps, expense savings can be expected."
The director assessed that the current virtual asset market is being reorganized along two pillars. The first is the "tokenized money" area, including stablecoins, cross-border payments, and 24/7 liquidity management, and the second is the "tokenized finance" area, which includes tokenized asset issuance, transaction, and custody.
The director said, "The key question in the market is no longer whether to tokenize, but which regulatory frame to use to build a model that is actually operable."
The director also introduced Ripple's custody business strategy. Ripple defines custody not as a simple trust function but as an "orchestration layer" that connects an institution's entire digital asset operations. It is a method of integrated management that consolidates the fragmented systems of existing financial institutions—payments, treasury, asset management, and compliance—under a single policy structure.
The director said, "For institutional clients, strong custody alone is not enough," adding, "Safekeeping and movement, transaction, liquidity, stablecoins, and market access must be connected in a single flow to become part of actual business operations." The director continued, emphasizing, "Custody is no longer a vault; it is evolving into a new control panel for institutional finance."