XRP Faces Retail Shift in Korea as Institutional Partnerships Grow

Ripple has entered a partnership with Meritz Securities, marking its initial collaboration with a securities firm in South Korea. Together, they plan to investigate integrating Ripple Custody and its tokenization offerings into the country's capital markets.

Meanwhile, retail investors in Korea have pivoted to a different focus. According to fresh Chainalysis data, payment tokens such as XRP are losing traction in Korea's won-denominated market.

Ripple's Korean Partner List Grows to Four Institutions

As per Ripple's statement, the collaboration will initially operate within Meritz's current securities operations and under existing regulations. The companies intend to expand their partnership progressively as Korea's digital asset regulatory environment evolves.

Additionally, Meritz is exploring spot ETFs, fractional investing, security tokens, trading platforms, and won-pegged stablecoins.

Fiona Murray, Ripple's Asia Pacific managing director, connected the agreement to a shift in institutional preparedness.

“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.

Meritz Securities is partnering with Ripple to bring institutional-grade custody and tokenization to Korea’s capital markets: https://t.co/wmGb8sYuRR

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

— Ripple (@Ripple) October 14, 2026

Meritz becomes Ripple's fourth institutional collaborator in Korea during 2026. Kyobo Life Insurance utilizes Ripple Custody for settling tokenized government bonds, Kbank is rolling out wallet infrastructure, and Jeonbuk Bank has adopted Ripple Payments for international money transfers.

Other Korean companies are also gearing up. According to Francis Kang, executive director of Korea Blockchain Week, every leading bank and securities firm currently has a digital asset unit, and the majority are piloting stablecoin, tokenization, or custody projects, as reported by Chainalysis.

Where XRP Stands With Korea's Retail Traders

Despite Ripple's increasing institutional presence, this expansion has not resulted in price gains for XRP.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $1.37, a decline of 7.19% over the last seven days according to BeInCrypto Markets. The token is still roughly 62% off its record high of $3.65 reached on July 17, 2025.

Ripple's institutional partnerships represent just one segment of the Korean market. The Chainalysis report indicated that local institutions are still in a preparatory phase, meaning retail traders continue to dominate.

Yet retail traders' focus has changed. By June 2026, AI tokens had surpassed payment tokens such as XRP in won trading volume, the report noted. The volume of AI tokens in won trading was 19.5 times greater than the yen trading volume.

Worldcoin (WLD) topped the category with $7.41 billion in trading volume in the year ending June. The rise in AI token trading occurred alongside the stock market ascent of chipmaker SK Hynix.

XRP's trading activity on Upbit has also dropped sharply. Monthly XRP/KRW trading volume peaked at 28.94 billion XRP in November 2024 but fell to 3.54 billion XRP in September 2026.

Nonetheless, as of October 14, XRP was still Upbit's leading asset in terms of 24-hour trading value, at approximately 80.5 billion won. Bitcoin (BTC) came next with around 73.8 billion won.