Aviva tokenizes £22bn sterling fund share class on XRPL

Aviva Investors and Ripple launched a tokenised share class of Aviva’s approximately £22 billion Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger, adding an on-chain access layer to the manager’s largest fund. The joint announcement from Ripple says Aviva invested £50 million in the new class. It also reports more than £86 million invested across the firm’s two tokenised share classes, including the USD Liquidity Fund class launched in July 2026. The Block’s report identifies the sterling fund as an Ireland-domiciled UCITS money market fund, first launched in 2002.

What does the token represent, and what stays off-chain?

Under Aviva’s “digital twin” model, the ledger represents investors’ holdings while the fund and its existing structure remain off-chain. The tokenised class gives eligible investors with digital wallets a way to access the sterling fund; it does not move the fund’s underlying debt instruments onto XRPL. Aviva says the class has the same investment objective, risk profile, liquidity characteristics and regulatory protections as the conventional fund.

The fund targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity through exposure to high-grade, sterling-denominated short-term debt instruments. The announcement says all assets are held by the fund’s custodian, The Bank of New York Mellon. Komainu, a regulated institutional digital asset custodian, and Licuido, a digital infrastructure platform, supported the launch. These roles describe separate layers: the fund custodian holds its assets, while the digital asset and infrastructure providers support the tokenised share class.

What do the launch figures measure?

The approximately £22 billion figure is the size of the underlying Sterling Liquidity Fund, not the value of its tokenised class. Aviva’s £50 million investment is specifically in the new sterling class. The more than £86 million figure combines investment across both its tokenised offerings, sterling and dollar-denominated. The announcement does not break down that combined total by class or state how much came from investors other than Aviva. Those figures therefore do not establish how much of the existing fund has moved into tokenised form.

The sterling launch is Aviva’s second tokenisation of an existing fund. Its earlier USD Liquidity Fund class launched on XRPL in July 2026. The company says the new class makes it one of Europe’s largest providers of tokenised money market funds. That is Aviva’s characterization in the announcement; it does not provide a comparative market dataset.

Which XRPL transaction rules govern investor transfers?

The announcement says XRPL will be used to issue and manage the tokenised share class, but it does not identify the token standard, smart contract or ledger transaction types involved. It also does not specify whether holders may transfer tokens to one another, how subscriptions and redemptions settle, or what happens if ledger records and the off-chain fund register diverge. Those details matter because on-chain representation alone does not establish that a fund share is freely transferable or that settlement happens on-chain.

Aviva says the structure is designed to operate within existing regulatory frameworks. Its release does not give investor eligibility criteria beyond requiring an eligible investor and a digital wallet. The available facts establish a blockchain-based record and access layer tied to an existing regulated fund; they do not establish the transfer controls or reconciliation process that govern each holding.

Sources and documents

• joint announcement from Ripple — ripple.com
• The Block’s report — theblock.co