Aviva Investors has launched its first tokenised fund share class on the XRP Ledger, taking its partnership with Ripple from pilot stage into full production.
The new product is a tokenised share class of the Aviva Investors US Dollar Liquidity Fund, an Ireland-domiciled UCITS money market fund that has existed in conventional form since 2020. The move marks the first time the UK-based asset manager has put a regulated fund structure onto Ripple’s blockchain network.
Approved this month by the Central Bank of Ireland, the share class uses what the firms describe as a “digital twin” model. The underlying fund remains off-chain within its existing regulatory framework, while corresponding positions are mirrored on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
According to the launch announcement on 29 July, only eligible investors with approved digital wallets will be able to access the tokenised units. Those investors will receive the same investment objective, risk profile, liquidity arrangements and regulatory protections as holders of the fund’s traditional share class.
Mark Versey, chief executive of Aviva Investors, characterised the launch as the firm’s entry point into the market for tokenised funds, signalling a wider digital strategy rather than a standalone experiment.
Regulated structure preserved
The Aviva Investors US Dollar Liquidity Fund targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity by investing in high-quality, short-term debt instruments denominated in US dollars. That investment mandate remains unchanged for the tokenised share class.
BNY Mellon will continue to act as custodian for the fund’s underlying assets, a structure designed to ringfence traditional regulated custody from the blockchain-based record of investor holdings.
Technology firm Licuido has provided the tokenisation platform that allows Aviva to issue and manage shares on XRPL without transferring the underlying securities onto the blockchain itself. Regulated digital asset custodian Komainu has supported the blockchain infrastructure underpinning the new share class.
The Central Bank of Ireland’s approval means the tokenised units operate inside the existing UCITS wrapper, rather than under a separate or experimental regime.
Access remains restricted for US investors
Despite the fund’s US dollar denomination, the tokenised share class is not automatically available to investors in the United States. Access will depend on local securities regulations, distribution approvals and Aviva’s own onboarding criteria in each jurisdiction.
The announcement did not refer to a US retail share class, nor did it disclose any approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for distribution in the American market.
Aviva and Ripple have also not revealed the initial value of the tokenised shares placed at launch. Future scale will depend on how quickly eligible investors are onboarded and whether Aviva chooses to roll out similar structures across other funds within the partnership.
Ripple deepens institutional push
The live launch follows a tokenisation partnership first disclosed by Aviva Investors and Ripple in February. At that time, the two companies said they intended to collaborate through 2026 and beyond to bring regulated funds onto XRPL. This Aviva product is the first implementation of that plan and Ripple’s first live partnership with a European investment manager.
Ripple has been expanding its broader institutional infrastructure in parallel. Last week the company introduced Ripple Mint, a service that lets approved customers issue, redeem, bridge and monitor its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin via a dedicated channel.
In a separate move, Ripple has invested in Notabene, a compliance specialist that runs a payments and transaction network for regulated financial institutions. Together, those developments are aimed at strengthening token issuance, distribution and regulatory alignment across Ripple’s ecosystem rather than relying on a single flagship product.
SBI Holdings, a long-standing Ripple partner, is also diversifying its on-chain strategy. The Japanese financial group has rebranded SBI Security Solutions as SBI Digital Practice and repositioned the business around the Canton Network, extending its blockchain activity beyond Ripple and XRPL.
Growing tokenised asset base on XRPL
The Aviva fund arrives as tokenised real-world assets on XRPL continue to expand. Data from RWA.xyz showed that as of 29 July the network hosted $313.3m in distributed assets and $4.06bn in represented assets, giving a combined tracked real-world asset value of about $4.37bn.
Over the previous 30 days, the number of real-world asset holders on XRPL increased by 17.42% to 182. Over the same period, however, the value of distributed assets fell 5.24%, while the value of represented assets declined 0.47%.
XRPL also held $952.25m in stablecoins, including around $907.2m attributed to RLUSD. If those stablecoin figures are added to the distributed and represented real-world asset totals, the broader tracked value on the network would exceed $5.3bn. RWA.xyz, however, records stablecoins and other real-world assets as separate categories.
With no initial issuance size disclosed, the impact of Aviva’s tokenised US Dollar Liquidity Fund share class on those totals will become clear only as institutional investors begin to adopt the product and as Aviva decides whether to extend the model to further funds under its agreement with Ripple.
