Aviva Investors has invested $66 million in a tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger. The announcement came on October 26 through a partnership with blockchain infrastructure provider Ripple, extending the firm's existing collaboration to bring conventional fund structures onto distributed ledger technology.
The underlying Sterling Liquidity Fund manages approximately GBP 22 billion. Combined investments across Aviva Investors' two tokenized share classes now exceed $116 million, spanning both the sterling offering and a dollar-denominated counterpart launched in July.
Digital Twin Technology Preserves Investor Protections
The tokenized share class uses a digital twin model that creates a blockchain representation of the existing investment while maintaining the original off-chain fund structure. Investors retain the same investment objective, risk profile, liquidity characteristics, and regulatory protections as the original fund, which was established in 2002.
The Ireland-domiciled fund operates under UCITS, the European Union's Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities framework. It targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity through high-grade, sterling-denominated short-term debt instruments.
Institutional digital asset custodian Komainu provides custody and tokenization support, while infrastructure platform Licuido assists with tokenization and trading. The underlying fund assets remain held by The Bank of New York Mellon, the fund's custodian. Eligible investors require digital wallets to access the share class.
Expanding Tokenized Fund Offerings
A February partnership agreement between Aviva Investors and Ripple established the foundation for this initiative, with plans to bring additional traditional fund structures to the XRP Ledger during 2026 and beyond. The arrangement marked Ripple's first partnership with a European investment manager.
Aviva Investors CEO Mark Versey stated that the expansion demonstrates the firm's intent to lead in the tokenized offerings space and establishes groundwork for future capability expansion.
