Why Is Ripple All Over Spanish Banks? Spoiler: It’s Not Because They Like Tapas

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So, here’s the scoop – Ripple, that US blockchain outfit everyone pretends to understand but really just nods along, just signed a deal with Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). What are they doing? Oh, just casually offering to babysit your Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Because who wouldn’t want some third party holding their digital magic internet money?

Ripple’s Big Move: Playing Babysitter for BBVA’s Bitcoin and Ethereum

Ripple, the company behind that thing called XRP – which honestly still confuses everyone at family dinners – announced they’re teaming up with BBVA. You remember BBVA, the Spanish bank that in July 2025 decided, “Hey, why don’t we start trading and guarding Bitcoin and Ethereum for our everyday folks?” Yeah, that one.

According to the latest press release (which probably cost a fortune to print), Ripple will be bringing their so-called “institutional-grade” custody tech. It’s called Ripple Custody, and apparently, it’s like Fort Knox but for your digital coins – scalable, secure, tokenized assets stuff. If you don’t know what that means, join the club.

Cassie Craddock, who’s the Managing Director of Europe at Ripple – a title that sounds impressively vague – said thanks to the EU’s Market’s in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA), banks like BBVA can now jump into the digital asset pool without belly flopping.

For those who didn’t spring for the crypto lexicon, MiCA is Europe’s grand plan to put some rules around the wild west of digital assets, stablecoins, and whoever else claims to be your crypto buddy.

Crypto negotiation happening somewhere

With Ripple Custody, BBVA figures they can keep their customers happy, give them that sweet access to BTC and ETH, and tick all the annoying regulatory and security checkboxes that usually make sure people don’t lose their digital life savings. Francisco Maroto, BBVA’s Head of Digital Assets, gushed:

“Ripple’s custody solution lets us lean on something that isn’t a complete disaster, meeting the strictest security standards so we can pretend we actually know what we’re doing. This deal is about helping our customers dip their toes into crypto, backed by the charm and reliability of an actual bank.”

By the way, this isn’t the first crypto custody rodeo for Ripple and BBVA. Ripple’s already doing the same song and dance with BBVA’s cousins in Turkey and Switzerland. They’re like that one friend who just can’t stop crashing family gatherings.

Crypto Custody: The Hot New Boring Thing

This month’s crypto news diet also includes Ripple buddying up with Ctrl Alt in the UAE, apparently to spread their custody magic – because nothing says progress like more institutional babysitters for your digital fortune.

Across the pond, the US is warming up to crypto too. US Bancorp dusted off its Bitcoin custody service after three years of playing hide-and-seek, probably because the regulators finally said, “Eh, go ahead.”

Speaking of regulators, the big three in the US – OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC – just handed down a joint memo on how banks ought to treat digital asset custody. Meanwhile, Bitcoin hangs out at $111,040, flirting with a 1.2% dip in the last day. Nothing like waking up and seeing your imaginary money do a little dance, right?

Bitcoin being unpredictable as usual

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2025-09-10 10:15