Absa Group Ltd. launched the Absa Digital Asset Custody platform in South Africa on September 21, 2026, becoming the first African bank to offer institutional-grade custody for digital assets. The platform supports four categories at launch—Bitcoin, Ether, XRPL assets and USDC—with Bitcoin reported as the largest share of assets under custody. The service is for institutions only, targeting asset managers, non-bank financial institutions, corporates and treasury functions, and it operates within Absa’s existing governance and South African regulatory oversight.
The custody infrastructure is built on Ripple technology; the partnership was announced October 15, 2025. Bloomberg later noted Absa’s size, citing a $110 billion figure in coverage. Absa plans to expand the list of supported tokens over time but has not provided a specific timeline.