Aviva Invests $66 Million in Tokenized Sterling Fund on XRP Ledger - Bitcoin News
British insurance giant Aviva has invested $66 million in a tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger, expanding blockchain access to conventional money market investments.
Eligible investors can now access Aviva Investors' largest fund through tokenized shares issued on the XRP Ledger. The asset management business and blockchain infrastructure provider Ripple announced the launch on Oct. 26. Aviva's GBP 50 million investment, equivalent to $66 million, went into the new share class of the Sterling Liquidity Fund, which oversees approximately GBP 22 billion overall.
Combined investment across the firm's two tokenized share classes now exceeds GBP 86 million, or $116 million, according to the announcement. Those holdings span the sterling offering and its dollar-denominated counterpart.
Digital Twin Model
Holdings in the new share class use a digital twin model that creates a blockchain copy of an existing investment while preserving the existing off-chain fund structure. This approach applies real-world asset tokenization to conventional fund interests.
Investors retain the same investment objective, risk profile, liquidity characteristics, and regulatory protections as the original fund, which launched in 2002. Under UCITS, the Ireland-domiciled fund follows common investment and investor-protection rules.
This expansion of our tokenised offering shows our clear intent to be a leader in this area and sets the groundwork for a future expansion of our capabilities.
Infrastructure and Expansion
Custody and tokenization support come from institutional digital asset custodian Komainu and infrastructure platform Licuido. Eligible investors need digital wallets to access the share class, while the underlying fund assets remain with The Bank of New York Mellon.
February's agreement established the fund tokenization partnership, marking Ripple's first European investment manager partnership. Brazil's CSD BR is also working with Ripple on blockchain copies of fund ownership records from BTG Pactual.
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