Blockchain payments firm Ripple has announced the launch of the first tokenized money market fund on the XRP Ledger, comprising of asset manager abrdn’s $4.77 billion (3.8 billion British pounds) US dollar Liquidity Fund.
It was made possible through Ripple’s partnership with Archax, the United Kingdom’s first Financial Conduct Authority-regulated cryptocurrency exchange, broker and custodian, which has access to abrdn’s money market fund.
The tokenization of abrdn’s $4.77 billion money market fund on XRPL demonstrates how more real-world assets (RWAs) are moving on onchain to unlock operational cost savings and settlement efficiencies, Ripple said in a Nov. 25 statement.
Abrdn’s senior investment manager Duncan Moir said, “real benefits are to be had from leveraging the efficiency of moving the end-to-end investment and cash settlement process on-chain.”
Source: Archax
Only “professional investors” will have access to abrdn’s money market fund on XRPL through Archax’s tokenization platform, Ripple said.
Ripple will also allocate $5 million into tokens on abrdn’s US dollar Liquidity Fund.
It’s all part of Ripple’s RWA plans to capture more of what Boston Consulting Group estimates will become a $16 trillion market by 2030.
Tokenized money market funds alone account for over $1 billion in assets under management, led by the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund at $443.9 million, according to Dune Analytics data shared by asset manager 21Shares.
“There is now real momentum building for tokenized real-world assets,” explained Archax’s CEO Graham Rodford.
Related: RWA tokenization sector could see 50x growth by 2030: Report
Ripple’s biggest competitors in the RWA space are Ethereum and Stellar, which have tokenized $3.07 billion and $386.2 million worth of RWA assets, Dune Analytics data from 21Shares shows.
Government securities (which include money market funds) and commodities are the most tokenized RWAs (not including fiat-collateralized stablecoins) at $2.28 billion and $1.14 billion.
Meanwhile, Ripple’s XRP (XRP) token has been one of the market’s best performers over the last week, up 27.9% to $1.43.
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