Aviva launches sterling tokenised share class with £50m

The investment giant Aviva Investors has introduced a new tokenised share class for its Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The launch, announced on October 26, 2026, is backed by an initial investment of £50m from the manager itself. This move significantly expands the scale of Aviva’s digital asset offerings, bringing total tokenised investments across its dollar and sterling share classes above £86m.

The underlying sterling fund is a massive money market vehicle with approximately £22 billion in assets under management. It is the manager’s largest fund and was established in 2002. The new tokenised class targets the same high-grade, short-term debt exposure and daily liquidity as the conventional share class.

Digital twin structure

Aviva employs a digital-twin structure for the tokenised offering. Holdings are represented on-chain, while the existing off-chain fund structure remains in place. The sterling fund is an Ireland-domiciled UCITS money market fund. Tokenised investors receive the same investment objective, risk profile, and regulatory protections as conventional investors.

The fund assets are held by The Bank of New York Mellon, and the launch announcement describes no migration of the underlying debt instruments onto the ledger. Aviva’s liquidity product page describes access to investments through a tokenised account on the ledger, with the underlying fund, investment process, and risk management remaining unchanged.

Portfolio and risk

The portfolio behind the conventional share class is a short-term, low-volatility net asset value money market fund. It aims to preserve investment value and offer returns in line with money market rates, measuring performance against the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA). The fund normally holds term deposits, reverse repo, and cash-like instruments issued by governments, international bodies, banks, and companies.

The portfolio is managed by Aviva Investors, which actively assembles it using credit and interest-rate analysis to maximise yields. The key information document for the conventional class sets out specific limits, including a weighted average maturity of 60 days or less and a residual maturity to legal redemption of no more than 397 days. The fund can invest up to 10% of net asset value in other short-term money market funds.

The fund aims for a high Aaa rating from agencies such as Moody’s, though this comes with no guarantee that investors will recover their principal. The same documentation warns that the value of money market securities can change daily with interest rates, inflation, and issuer creditworthiness. The risk warning applies to the portfolio whose holdings the digital twin represents.

Operational details and next steps

The launch announcement identifies Komainu, the institutional digital-asset custodian, and Licuido, the infrastructure platform for tokenising and trading real-world assets, as supporters of the launch. It leaves the detailed allocation of responsibility for wallet recovery, transfer approvals, and reconciliation between the digital record and the off-chain fund structure unspecified.

Investor eligibility still applies. New clients must undergo know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering checks during onboarding. The launch release specifies eligible investors but leaves the sterling tokenised class’s complete eligibility criteria unstated. Prospective investors are directed to Aviva’s distribution team rather than an open subscription interface.

The conventional class’s key information document describes redemptions at the valuation point on each dealing day. However, the launch release promises the same liquidity characteristics but gives neither tokenised-class cut-off times nor a round-the-clock cash redemption commitment. A dealing schedule specific to the new tokenised class has not been published.

Aviva has disclosed the live investment and access model, but the reviewed product pages also leave tokenised-class fees, minimum investment, and transfer restrictions unspecified. The launch announcement identifies neither an XRPL issuer address nor a token identifier. The next step for the offering will be the publication of these specific operational and subscription terms.