Aviva Investors tokenizes £22B sterling fund on XRP Ledger

Key points

• Aviva Investors added a tokenized share class to its £22B Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger
• Aviva invested £50M of its own money in the new class, announced Oct. 26
• Total across its two tokenized money market classes exceeds £86M
• Ripple, Komainu, Licuido and BNY Mellon are involved; fund terms are unchanged

Aviva Investors has launched a tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger and put £50 million of its own money into it, the asset manager announced on Oct. 26. The underlying fund holds about £22 billion in assets and is the firm’s largest, according to the announcement published by Ripple.

DL News also reported on the structure of the product and the partners involved.

How the tokenized share class works

Aviva describes the product as a “digital twin” of the existing fund. The fund keeps its conventional structure, while tokens issued on the XRP Ledger represent an interest in the new share class. According to the announcement, the fund is an Ireland-domiciled UCITS money market fund that first launched in 2002.

Eligible investors with digital wallets can hold the tokenized class. Aviva says they keep the same investment objective, risk profile, liquidity and regulatory protections as holders of the conventional fund. DL News reported that the fund invests in short-term, investment-grade sterling debt and that BNY Mellon, the fund’s custodian, continues to hold the underlying securities.

Several companies took part in the launch:

• Ripple provided the blockchain infrastructure.
• Komainu, a regulated institutional digital asset custodian, handles custody of the digital tokens.
• Licuido, a digital infrastructure platform for tokenizing and trading real-world assets, supported the launch.
• BNY Mellon remains the fund’s custodian.

What changes for investors

For investors, the main difference is the access route and the record of ownership rather than the investments themselves. The portfolio and its rules are unchanged, and holdings are represented on a blockchain ledger instead of only in a traditional register. Aviva cites operational benefits including streamlined ownership, transparency, tamper-resistant recordkeeping and settlement, DL News reported.

Aviva Investors CEO Mark Versey said in the announcement: “We believe tokenised funds can increase efficiency and ultimately lead to improved client outcomes.” Nigel Khakoo, a senior vice president at Ripple, said markets are moving to 24/7 access and real-time settlement.

Aviva’s wider tokenization push

This is Aviva’s second tokenized money market share class. The first, tied to its US dollar Liquidity Fund, launched earlier in 2026. Aviva said it now has more than £86 million invested across the two classes, which Ripple’s release put at about $116 million. Other outlets converted the figure at slightly different exchange rates.

DL News reported that Aviva has explored tokenization since 2024 and that Alastair Sewell, a senior investment director, told Financial News that more funds will be tokenized, with money market funds the near-term priority. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and JPMorgan also offer tokenized money market funds, DL News noted, citing an Alphapoint article.

The XRP Ledger also drew institutional attention a day later. On Oct. 27, Ripple and BNY announced that BNY’s digital asset custody platform supports XRP and RLUSD, and that BNY plans to expand support for tokenized investment products on the ledger, subject to approvals, according to DL News. That announcement did not describe new features for Aviva’s fund.

The £50 million is Aviva’s own seed capital, so the launch does not by itself show outside demand for the tokenized class. Aviva has not said when it expects to tokenize additional funds.