Aviva invested £50 million ($66 million) in a new tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger on Monday. Aviva's combined investments across two XRP Ledger offerings now exceed £86 million ($116 million). The Sterling Liquidity Fund is Aviva's largest investment fund, managing approximately £22 billion ($29 billion). The new investment accounts for roughly 0.23% of the fund's existing assets, while the remaining portfolio uses conventional financial infrastructure.
The Ireland-domiciled fund holds high-grade, sterling-denominated short-term debt instruments and provides daily liquidity. The tokenized share class represents ownership through a digital twin on the XRP Ledger without changing the underlying investment arrangements. Aviva introduced its first tokenized money market fund offering in July through an XRP Ledger-based share class of its US Dollar Liquidity Fund. Aviva Investors CEO Mark Versey said tokenized funds could improve efficiency and ultimately deliver better outcomes for clients. Versey said the second launch provides a foundation for expansion and that Aviva intends to explore further opportunities with Ripple.
The issuance uses the XRP Ledger's Multi-Purpose Token standard, which lets financial institutions specify rules for holding, transferring and recovering digital assets. XRPL Foundation contributor Vet identified three restrictions: holders require authorization, the issuer can recover tokens under specified conditions, and investors cannot transfer tokens among themselves. These restrictions let Aviva supervise ownership and compliance while issuing and redeeming shares through blockchain infrastructure. BNY Mellon continues to hold the underlying fund assets as custodian. Komainu supports digital asset custody. Licuido supplies the tokenization infrastructure.
XRP Ledger transactions incur fees denominated in XRP, and accounts and certain ledger objects require XRP reserves. Greater network activity could therefore increase transactional demand for XRP. However, ordinary transaction fees are extremely small. Aviva's purchases of tokenized fund shares are not equivalent purchases of XRP. More substantial token demand will depend on further institutional issuance, greater settlement activity and additional applications involving liquidity.
Separately, Ripple unveiled corporate treasury capabilities at Swell 2026 for businesses managing payments and liquidity outside normal banking hours. Ripple's 24/7 Returns product lets eligible corporate clients earn returns on qualifying digital assets, including Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, held in Ripple wallets. The service enables returns on operating cash during nights, weekends and public holidays without requiring companies to manage the underlying digital asset transactions themselves. Ripple also launched an orchestration layer combining GSmart artificial intelligence with cash forecasting, reconciliation, liquidity management and payment execution. The expansion follows Ripple's $1 billion purchase of treasury management provider GTreasury in October 2025. The acquisition added an established enterprise software business to Ripple's digital asset operations.
Ripple named American Airlines, Subway, Adecco, Kingfisher, Christian Louboutin and Trax as businesses served by Ripple's treasury platform. However, Ripple did not establish that those businesses use the new returns program, XRP or RLUSD. The commercial opportunity is substantial, although adoption data indicate that corporate treasury departments remain cautious about digital assets.
The Association for Financial Professionals' 2026 Liquidity Survey found that 46% of organizations had increased US cash balances. The survey found that 86% of respondents would consider real-time money market funds if those funds met the respondents' investment policies. The survey found that just 1% of organizations already used or piloted stablecoins or tokenized products. Another 9% of surveyed organizations were actively exploring those products.
Ripple's expanded treasury services could provide corporate clients with another way to access digital assets. The consequences for XRP depend partly on the settlement networks and assets corporate clients ultimately select. RLUSD operates on multiple blockchains. Ripple's payment infrastructure can settle transactions using stablecoins or conventional currencies without necessarily requiring XRP as an intermediary. Ripple has not disclosed the returns offered by the treasury product or the mechanisms producing those returns. Ripple has also not disclosed whether participating companies will send transactions through the XRP Ledger. The direct economic benefits for XRP from Ripple's new treasury products remain unresolved.