Aviva Invests $66 Million in Tokenized Sterling Fund on XRP Ledger

Aviva Commits $66 Million to Tokenized Sterling Shares

Eligible investors can now access Aviva Investors’ largest fund through tokenized shares issued and managed on the $XRP Ledger. Aviva’s 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. Aviva Investors CEO Mark Versey said:

“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.”

July’s launch introduced the tokenized U.S. dollar liquidity fund share class, establishing the firm’s first blockchain-based offering. The sterling version brings its lineup to two currencies.

Digital Twin Model Preserves Fund Protections

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 European Union’s Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities framework, the Ireland-domiciled fund follows common investment and investor-protection rules. It targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity through high-grade, sterling-denominated short-term debt instruments.

Custody and tokenization support come from institutional digital asset custodian Komainu, which safeguards digital holdings, alongside infrastructure platform Licuido, which helps asset managers tokenize and trade financial assets. Eligible investors need digital wallets to access the share class. The underlying fund assets remain with The Bank of New York Mellon, the fund’s custodian.

Aviva Deal Was Ripple’s First With a European Investment Manager

February’s agreement established the fund tokenization partnership, with plans to bring traditional fund structures to the $XRP Ledger during 2026 and beyond. Ripple supplies blockchain infrastructure for issuing and managing the tokenized investments.

That agreement marked Ripple’s first European investment manager partnership and Aviva Investors’ initial move toward incorporating tokenized products into its existing offering.

Brazil’s CSD BR, an operator that registers securities, maintains ownership records, and settles transactions, is also working with Ripple on blockchain copies of fund ownership records. This process, called ownership mirroring, starts with investment fund shares from Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual. The blockchain copies supplement CSD BR’s systems, which remain the official ownership record.