Aviva Investors has launched a tokenized share class of its £22 billion Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger. The firm invested £50 million in it, extending its partnership with Ripple to a second money market fund.
Aviva Investors put £50 million ($66 million) into the new sterling share class, which runs on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The £22 billion figure is the total assets of the existing Sterling Liquidity Fund, not the amount moved onto the blockchain.
According to an October 26 announcement, Aviva now has more than £86 million ($116 million) invested across its two tokenized share classes. The other is the U.S. dollar liquidity fund, which launched on July 29.
How the sterling share class works
The Sterling Liquidity Fund is Aviva Investors' largest fund. It invests in high-grade, short-term debt denominated in British pounds, and it is an Ireland-domiciled UCITS money market fund established in 2002.
A digital-twin structure underpins the new share class. Ownership is represented on XRPL, while the underlying portfolio and existing fund arrangements stay in place. Aviva said the arrangement preserves the investment objective, risk profile, liquidity characteristics and regulatory protections of the conventional fund.
Komainu supports the share class, and Licuido provides infrastructure for issuing and managing the tokenized assets. BNY Mellon remains custodian of the underlying assets. The structure does not turn the fund's holdings into XRP.
Aviva and Ripple on tokenization
Mark Versey, CEO of Aviva Investors, said the launch showed the company's commitment to expanding its tokenized products. According to Versey: "We believe tokenised funds can increase efficiency and ultimately lead to improved client outcomes"
Ripple said XRPL provides the infrastructure for issuing and managing the shares through low-cost blockchain transactions. The network has processed more than 4 billion transactions since 2012, according to the announcement. It also supports nearly 8 million active wallets and is maintained by more than 130 independent validators.
The companies did not disclose how many outside investors had subscribed to the sterling class.
Other asset managers tokenize money market funds
Aviva joins other large managers using blockchain rails. On October 22, JPMorgan Asset Management expanded two money market funds, MONY and JLTXX, onto Solana for qualified U.S. investors.
Aviva's launch arrives just before Ripple's Swell conference in New York, scheduled for October 27–29.
Source: crypto.news
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