Arrel adds ISO 27001, Circle grant and Sodot MPC partnership

Arrel said it secured ISO 27001 certification in March 2026, won a Circle grant to build cross-chain USDC settlement infrastructure, and partnered with Sodot to add native MPC. The moves deepen Arrel’s pitch as a non-custodial infrastructure layer for institutions across Africa and other emerging markets. Why it matters: - Arrel is trying to package settlement, custody, compliance, liquidity and tokenization into one institutional stack instead of forcing financial firms to stitch together separate systems. - The new capabilities target regulated markets where digital asset adoption is already active but infrastructure must be auditable, compliant and secure from the start. - The company has processed more than $3.5 billion in orchestrated digital asset volume and more than $250 million in verified live transactions since 2024 across asset managers, payment service providers, remittance operators and EMIs. What happened: - Arrel said it secured ISO 27001 certification in March 2026. - Arrel said it received a grant from Circle, issuer of USDC, to develop chain-agnostic settlement infrastructure across Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol. - Arrel said it partnered with Sodot to integrate multi-party computation technology into its platform. - The announcement was made June 18, 2026, in Durban, South Africa. The details: - ISO 27001 covers Arrel’s full infrastructure and operational security posture through a formally audited information security management framework. - The Circle-funded work is designed to let institutions accept and settle USDC regardless of which blockchain a counterparty uses. - Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol moves USDC natively between blockchains through a burn-and-mint mechanism, without wrapped tokens or third-party bridges. - Arrel exposes that process through one API so an institution can receive USDC, run KYT screening automatically, route settlement to a configured destination and access fiat off-ramps in the same workflow. - The platform currently operates across Arbitrum One, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, Bitcoin, Stellar and Tron. - The CCTP integration adds native cross-chain USDC flows as Circle-supported chains expand. - Sodot’s threshold signature scheme distributes private key control across multiple independent parties so no single entity holds a complete private key at any point. - Arrel said institutions using its platform can operate proprietary MPC infrastructure while retaining full private key control with a programmable governance layer and without depending on an external custodian. - Arrel said it does not hold or access client assets or keys. - The Sodot integration sits alongside existing custody provider partnerships. - Current live custody integrations include Fireblocks for vault management, policy-based transaction approvals and multi-signature controls. - Ripple Custody, formerly Metaco, is scheduled for integration in Q2 2026. - Compliance is screened at the transaction level through Chainalysis for KYT monitoring. - Sumsub handles KYC, KYB, liveness checks, document OCR, sanctions screening and ongoing monitoring. - For South African institutions, the compliance layer is designed to align with FSCA frameworks and SARB expectations from the point of integration. - FATF Recommendation 16 Travel Rule compliance is scheduled for Q2 2026. - The integration will automate originator and beneficiary data exchange between VASPs, with jurisdiction-specific workflows aligned to FATF R16 and FIC Directive 9. - Cross-VASP data exchange will run through Sumsub’s GTR network with standardized audit-ready reporting across providers in one format. - Tokenization of real-world assets is in active development on Arrel’s platform. - Arrel is already being used to tokenize securities, equities and gold for institutional clients. - Tokenization of funds and deposits is under development. - A formal announcement is expected by the end of Q2 2026. - South Africa is a core regulated market within Arrel’s infrastructure, with access to licensed exchanges, fiat on- and off-ramps and local liquidity. - Arrel aggregates liquidity across global and regional exchanges through one API. - Global venues include Binance, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, CEX.IO, LMAX, Deribit, Gate.io, HTX, Indodax, Kraken, KuCoin, OKX and Poloniex. - In South Africa, Arrel maintains dedicated integrations with Luno, VALR and XAGO, which it described as the three most active regulated digital asset venues in the country. - Arrel said its model removes the need for per-chain integrations, multiple custodians and fragmented compliance stacks. Between the lines: - The announcement shows Arrel leaning into regulated-market credibility as competition in institutional crypto infrastructure intensifies. - The mix of ISO certification, Circle backing and MPC tooling signals a push to reduce objections around security, settlement risk and key control. - South Africa appears to be Arrel’s anchor market, but the platform is built for broader sub-Saharan, North African and cross-border flows. What’s next: - Arrel is working toward SOC 2 Type 2 certification. - FATF Travel Rule compliance is slated for Q2 2026. - Ripple Custody integration is planned for Q2 2026. - Arrel expects a formal tokenization announcement by the end of Q2 2026. - The company also expects the Circle-supported settlement layer to expand as more supported chains come online. The bottom line: - Arrel is betting that institutional digital asset infrastructure wins on one platform, one API and fewer trust gaps.