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Ripple's dollar token reaches Turkey through exchanges while Garanti BBVA's vault holds bitcoin and XRP
Ripple is pitching Turkey's nearly $200 billion crypto market with Garanti BBVA custody and its RLUSD dollar token on local exchanges. The bank's vault and the token sit in separate channels, so a Turkish customer hedging the lira on-chain still goes through an exchange.
The Investor · Invest desk
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What happened
- Garanti BBVA Kripto, the bank's digital-asset subsidiary, runs Ripple Custody on IBM infrastructure, a partnership BBVA confirmed in October 2024 after a 2023 pilot.
- Garanti BBVA has since made the custody service available to its entire customer base.
- Reece Merrick, Ripple's Middle East and Africa managing director, described an extension of the storage partnership in a Jan. 22 post on X.
- Turkey brought crypto providers under Capital Markets Board oversight from July 2, 2024, and added operating, capital and anti-money-laundering rules from March 13, 2025.
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Why it matters
- constraint A Garanti BBVA customer who wants an on-chain dollar must open an exchange account, putting a second platform between them and a token the bank's custody does not cover.
- exposure Turkish RLUSD holders carry the issuer's reserve and redemption risk directly, because the token sits with exchanges and outside Garanti's safekeeping.
- decision Adjustable transition deadlines let Turkish banks delay choosing a custody vendor. Ripple's claim to be the only qualified institutional provider is worth less while the date can move.
Chainalysis put Turkey's annual crypto transaction volume at nearly $200 billion in an analysis published Oct. 23, 2025 [1]. The same work counted cumulative inflows of about $878 billion from early 2021 through mid-2025 [2]. Spread over those four and a half years, that is about $195 billion a year [17], close to the annual figure. Chainalysis tied the activity to growing speculative trading in altcoins and to attempts to preserve purchasing power amid inflation and lira depreciation [3].
Garanti BBVA's service supports bitcoin, ether and XRP, which customers can store, transfer and convert to or from conventional money [6]. RLUSD is not among the assets named. Ripple ties its Turkish strategy to currency pressure [15] and distributes the dollar token through local trading platforms. It announced availability on BiLira, Bitexen and Bitlo on June 2 [7], and its Oct. 5 assessment highlighted listings on BiLira and Bitlo [8]. The Ripple asset in Garanti's vault is XRP.
Reece Merrick, Ripple's managing director for the Middle East and Africa, said: "We're seeing genuine demand for regulated, dollar-backed liquidity, and that's why stablecoins like RLUSD matter here in a very practical way." [9] Ripple did not disclose how much RLUSD Turkish platforms hold or trade. A stablecoin holder's protection depends on reserve quality, the ability to exchange the token for cash, and the regulatory structure of the issuer [13]. Ripple set out RLUSD's supervision and reserve framework in September, identifying its subsidiary Standard Custody & Trust [12].
Ripple says it is the only infrastructure provider meeting the regulator's standards for institutional custodians [18]. New safekeeping requirements took effect in June. According to the Oct. 5 assessment, the transition deadlines remain subject to adjustment as authorized custodians extend their services [11].
I think the custody half of Ripple's Turkish case is documented, with a bank rollout and a licensing regime that both have dates attached [5][10]. The dollar half rests on Ripple's own description of demand. The best counter is that retail demand came first and institutions are following it [16]. Chainalysis also found a purchasing-power motive in that demand [3]. On that reading, RLUSD could become a common lira hedge on exchanges without the bank ever holding it. The narrower view fails if Garanti adds a dollar stablecoin to its supported assets, or if Ripple publishes Turkish RLUSD balances large enough to register against a flow averaging about $195 billion a year [17].
What to watch
- Chainalysis's next Turkey analysis, the first measured past mid-2025, and whether it separates stablecoin volume from altcoin trading.
- Whether Bitexen, named in Ripple's June 2 launch but not highlighted on Oct. 5, still lists RLUSD.
- Whether the Capital Markets Board authorizes other infrastructure providers as institutional custodians, testing Ripple's claim to be the only one meeting its standards.