Ripple’s Power Move: Ctrl Alt Deal Turbocharges Middle East Crypto Custody Ambitions

Ripple just flipped the script on Middle Eastern crypto infrastructure—teaming up with Ctrl Alt to bulldoze custody barriers in the region.

Why it matters: While Wall Street still debates 'blockchain vs. legacy rails,' Ripple's planting flags where regulators are actually rolling out the red carpet. The partnership gives institutional players a compliant on-ramp for XRP and beyond.

The cynical take: Because nothing screams 'financial revolution' like helping oil money diversify into digital assets. But hey—adoption's adoption.

Ripple With Another Move In The UAE

Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, which launched at the end of last year, has secured its first major custody partner in the Arab Emirates, Ctrl Alt, with its network now encompassing clients from Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America.

The Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa at Ripple, Reece Merrick, commemorated the partnership:

“The Dubai Land Department’s Real Estate Tokenization Project is a prime example of the forward-thinking, innovative initiatives that are positioning Dubai at the heart of the global digital asset industry.

This is the first time a government real estate registration authority in the Middle East has tokenized property title deeds on a public blockchain. That the DLD has chosen XRPL for this is exciting and reinforces the blockchain’s credentials of choice for financial use cases.”

Ctrl Alt recently acquired its VIRTUAL Assets Service Provider (VASP) license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), authorizing it to carry out issuer-related services.

This will enable them to run a legally compliant platform for the production, administration, and distribution of Asset-Referenced Virtual Assets (ARVA) and tokenized real-world assets.

“As the designated tokenization provider for the DLD Project, Ctrl Alt brings deep expertise in financial engineering and digital asset infrastructure, so it makes sense for us to partner with Ripple to use their custody technology to support this initiative.

This will allow us to leverage proven and trusted technology that meets the highest security and operational standards.” – Matt Ong, CEO and Founder, Ctrl Alt.

Dubai continues to pave the way towards a more open, unambiguous, and efficacious real estate market with its Real Estate Tokenization Project.

Minting property deeds on the blockchain enables fractional ownership, expands investor participation, and enhances the efficiency of operations.

An Integration and Adoption Boom

The border-crossing cryptocurrency’s spree of acceptance doesn’t seem to be showing signs of slowing down.

Earlier this year, the company behind it secured a license from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to offer crypto payments in the UAE.

Following that, Ripple procured the brokerage firm Hidden Road in a $1.25 billion deal, making it the first in the crypto world to own and operate a multi-asset prime broker.

RLUSD has also been in the spotlight, having been integrated into the Swiss bank AMINA and with the oldest US bank, BNY Mellon, becoming its custodian.