Ripple continues to break new ground in tokenized finance, unveiling the first-ever tokenized money market fund on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
Announced Monday, this milestone is a collaboration with Archax, the first FCA-regulated digital asset exchange, and Abrdn, a leading UK asset manager with over £500 billion in assets under management.
The tokenized fund, part of Abrdn’s £3.8 billion US Dollar Liquidity Fund (Lux), is set to bring financial assets onto the blockchain, marking a significant step toward institutional adoption of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). Ripple also pledged $5 million to support this initiative as part of a broader fund to foster RWAs on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), with investments managed by various asset managers.
“There is now real momentum building for tokenized real-world assets, and Archax is at the forefront of tokenizing assets such as equities, debt instruments, and money market funds.” Graham Rodford, CEO of Archax, noted.
Markus Infanger, RippleX’s Senior Vice President, added, “The arrival of abrdn’s money market fund on XRPL demonstrates how real-world assets are being tokenized to enhance operational efficiencies, further reinforcing XRPL as a leading blockchain for RWA tokenization.”
That said, this announcement coincides with Ripple’s ongoing development of RLUSD, a US dollar-linked stablecoin launched in beta earlier this year. Designed for enterprise clients, RLUSD is backed by partners like Bitstamp, Bitso, MoonPay, and Bullish, with liquidity from market makers such as B2C2 and Keyrock.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently described RLUSD as a “high-quality stablecoin” set to become a gold standard in payments, DeFi, and RWAs. Public access to RLUSD will follow regulatory approval, with Garlinghouse emphasizing the firm’s focus on compliance.
Notably, industry forecasts predict tokenized assets could grow to $16 trillion by 2030, underscoring the significance of Ripple’s initiatives. Ripple is leveraging the XRPL’s robust features, such as tokenization, escrow, and trading, to drive institutional-grade decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
While pioneering blockchain finance, Ripple continues its legal battle with the SEC, which accused the company in 2020 of raising $1.3 billion through unregistered XRP sales. In July 2023, Ripple secured a partial victory when a judge ruled secondary sales of XRP did not violate securities laws. However, institutional sales exceeding $700 million were not exempt.
In August 2024, Ripple was fined $125 million, significantly lower than the SEC’s demand of $2 billion. The SEC has since appealed parts of the ruling. Despite these challenges, Ripple remains committed to advancing blockchain solutions.
