Ripple Expands Korean Market Access: Institutional Utility Beats Retail Hype

Ripple has partnered with Meritz Securities, its first securities firm partner in South Korea. The two will explore bringing Ripple Custody and its tokenization tools into Korea’s capital markets.

Korean retail traders, however, have moved toward a different theme. New Chainalysis data shows payment tokens like XRP (XRP) losing ground in Korea’s won market.

Ripple’s Korean Partner List Grows to Four Institutions

According to Ripple’s announcement, the two firms will begin within Meritz’s existing securities business and current regulations. They plan to widen cooperation in stages as Korea’s digital asset framework develops.

Meritz is also studying spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), fractional investment, security tokens, trading platforms and won-denominated stablecoins.

Fiona Murray, Ripple’s managing director for Asia Pacific, linked the deal to institutional readiness.

“Korea is one of the most dynamic digital asset markets in the world and its institutions are preparing to move from exploration to real-world utility,” Murray said.

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Meritz Securities is partnering with Ripple to bring institutional-grade custody and tokenization to Korea’s capital markets:

Our first securities partner in Korea, and our fourth Korean institution this year, after Kyobo Life Insurance, Kbank and Jeonbuk…

— Ripple () October 14, 2026

Meritz is Ripple’s fourth institutional partner in Korea this year. Kyobo Life Insurance uses Ripple Custody for tokenized government bond settlement, while Kbank is deploying wallet infrastructure. Jeonbuk Bank adopted Ripple Payments for cross-border remittances.

Other Korean firms are preparing too. Every major bank and securities firm now runs a digital asset team, Francis Kang told Chainalysis. Kang, executive director of Korea Blockchain Week, said most are testing stablecoin, tokenization, or custody pilots.

Where XRP Stands With Korea’s Retail Traders

While Ripple expands its institutional footprint, that growth has not translated into price strength for XRP.

The token traded at $1.37 at press time, down 7.19% over the past week, per BeInCrypto Markets. It remains about 62% below its $3.65 all-time high from July 17, 2025.

Ripple’s institutional partners are only one part of the Korean market. Chainalysis’s report revealed that institutions there are still in preparation, leaving retail traders in charge.

However, their attention has shifted. The report found AI tokens overtook payment tokens like XRP in won trading by June 2026. Their share of won trading ran 19.5 times the yen rate, the report found.

Worldcoin (WLD) led the category with $7.41 billion in volume over the year to June. AI-token trading grew in parallel with chipmaker SK Hynix’s stock market rise.

XRP’s own activity on Upbit has also cooled significantly. Monthly XRP/KRW volume reached 28.94 billion XRP in November 2024. In September 2026, it stood at 3.54 billion XRP.

Even so, XRP remained Upbit’s top asset by 24-hour trading value on October 14, at about 80.5 billion won. Bitcoin (BTC) followed at roughly 73.8 billion won.

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The post Is XRP Losing Korea? Insights from Chainalysis and Upbit Data appeared first on BeInCrypto.