Aviva Investors has launched a tokenized share class of its US Dollar Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger, marking the asset manager’s first completed fund-tokenization initiative. The new share class gives eligible investors with digital wallets access to an on-chain representation of an established Irish money market fund, following a partnership that Aviva Investors and Ripple announced in February.
The underlying fund has not been replaced or transferred entirely onto a blockchain. Instead, Aviva Investors is using a digital-twin structure that represents fund holdings on-chain while preserving the existing off-chain legal and investment framework. The tokenized class retains the conventional fund’s investment objective, risk profile, liquidity characteristics and regulatory protections, according to the asset manager.
Digital Layer Sits Above an Existing Money Market Fund
The Aviva Investors US Dollar Liquidity Fund was originally launched in 2020 and is structured as an Irish UCITS sub-fund. It invests in high-grade, short-term debt instruments denominated in U.S. dollars, with the objective of delivering returns broadly aligned with money market rates while preserving capital and maintaining daily liquidity. The tokenized share class changes how eligible investors can access and hold an interest in the fund, not the portfolio’s underlying investment mandate.
That distinction limits some of the assumptions commonly associated with tokenized real-world assets. The portfolio’s traditional securities are not being converted into individual blockchain tokens, and the fund’s investment management remains within its existing regulated structure. The XRPL token functions as a digital access and ownership-recording layer linked to the conventional fund, while the underlying assets continue to be held through established institutional custody arrangements.
Ripple supplied the public blockchain infrastructure through the XRP Ledger, which Aviva Investors will use to issue and administer the tokenized share class. XRPL provides the settlement and recordkeeping environment for the digital representation, but Ripple does not manage the fund or select its underlying investments. The February partnership was described by Ripple as its first collaboration with a Europe-based investment management business.
Komainu provided regulated institutional custody for the digital assets associated with the structure, while Licuido supplied the platform and tokenization infrastructure used for issuance. The Bank of New York Mellon continues to hold the fund’s conventional assets, separating custody of the underlying portfolio from the infrastructure supporting its blockchain-based representation.
The division of responsibilities reflects the hybrid nature of the product. Investors interact with an on-chain token, but the fund remains governed by traditional legal documentation, subscription requirements and regulatory obligations. Tokenization adds a new operational channel without removing the intermediaries responsible for custody, administration, compliance and investment management.
Irish Approval Establishes a Regulated Launch Framework
Aviva Investors said the Central Bank of Ireland approved the new tokenized share class and described the authorization as a regulatory first for this type of tokenized fund structure. The “regulatory first” designation is the company’s characterization, as the Central Bank’s public register confirms the fund’s UCITS authorization but does not independently publish a comparative assessment of tokenized share-class approvals.
The Central Bank’s register identifies the US Dollar Liquidity Fund as an approved UCITS investment company sub-fund, originally authorized on February 6, 2020. The latest development concerns an additional method of representing and distributing shares in that regulated fund, rather than approval of an entirely new investment vehicle.
Aviva Investors said the tokenized class will offer the same daily liquidity characteristics as the conventional version, but that does not make the product equivalent to a bank deposit or stablecoin. The fund remains exposed to investment, interest-rate, currency and money-market security risks, and its value is not guaranteed to remain constant. Investors may receive less than their original investment despite its capital-preservation objective.
The launch also does not make the share class universally available to retail users or every digital wallet. Aviva Investors limits access to eligible investors, and participation remains subject to the fund’s legal documentation, jurisdictional restrictions and onboarding requirements. Holding a compatible wallet is therefore a technical prerequisite rather than the sole condition for investing.
The structure provides a controlled way to test blockchain-based fund distribution without abandoning the protections and operational processes of a conventional UCITS product. Its broader significance will depend on whether tokenized access produces measurable improvements in settlement, administration and investor servicing, as well as whether other funds and distribution partners adopt the same model.
The launch moves the Aviva-Ripple partnership from exploratory development into a live investment product. Aviva Investors has placed a regulated money market fund share class on XRPL while keeping the underlying portfolio within traditional financial infrastructure, creating a hybrid model rather than a fully on-chain fund.