How Aviva Investors plans to tokenize its funds on XRP Ledger, with RippleX SVP

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  March 09, 2026 at 13:06  |  47:04  |  The Block

Summary

  • Aviva Investors ($280B AUM) is planning to tokenize its fund products on the XRP Ledger to eliminate T+2 settlement delays and reduce operational friction.
  • The tokenization of Real World Assets (RWAs) is moving from proof-of-concept pilots to live institutional workflows, specifically targeting the multi-trillion dollar repo market and intraday collateral mobility.
  • Operational inefficiencies currently account for roughly 50% of transaction costs in traditional financial markets; blockchain integration aims to compress this significantly.
  • AI agents are expected to natively adopt blockchain rails, as crypto provides the programmable trust, identity verification, and instant settlement infrastructure that AI lacks in legacy banking systems.
  • Bitcoin has firmly differentiated itself as a sovereign-grade store of value ("digital gold"), while assets like XRP, ETH, and SOL are competing to be the settlement and utility layers for institutional DeFi.
Trade Ideas
Marcus Infanger Senior Vice President of Business Development at RippleX 8:19
"BlackRock basically saying hey everything will be tokenized... Aviva partnership... Franklin Templeton... unlocking these efficiencies that blockchain technology promises... moving from a T+2 kind of situation into an intraday situation." Traditional asset managers that pioneer on-chain tokenization and participate in blockchain-based repo markets will drastically reduce operational friction (which currently accounts for 50% of transaction costs). Freeing up trapped pre-funding liquidity will lead to margin expansion and attract more AUM. LONG. Early adopters of institutional DeFi and tokenized funds will gain a structural cost and capital efficiency advantage over their legacy peers. Slow regulatory approval for on-chain fund distribution, smart contract vulnerabilities, or a lack of secondary market liquidity for tokenized institutional funds.
Kelvin Sparks Host & Research Analyst, The Block 9:51
"Ethereum's still leading in RWA TVL. Solana over the weekend hit all-time highs for RWA holder counts was around like 146,000." While enterprise-focused chains are making institutional pushes, Ethereum and Solana are actively capturing the live, crypto-native RWA market. Base layer blockchains that win the RWA liquidity fragmentation battle will accrue massive fee revenue and network effects. LONG. The tokenization of real-world assets is a multi-trillion dollar total addressable market, and the leading Layer-1s capturing this Total Value Locked will see direct value accrual. Network congestion, fragmentation of liquidity across Layer-2s, or traditional finance migrating entirely to permissioned, bank-backed chains.
Marcus Infanger Senior Vice President of Business Development at RippleX 17:43
"XRP has a privileged state on the XRP ledger... all transaction fees, reserve requirements are denominated on the XRP... I see really XRP as sort of like the glue on the network that connects liquidity and settlement." As massive traditional institutions like Aviva tokenize billions in funds on the XRPL and a native lending protocol launches, the mechanical demand for XRP (used for gas, network reserves, and auto-bridging illiquid assets) will scale directly with institutional network usage. LONG. Institutional adoption of the XRPL for RWAs and repo markets directly translates to token utility and structural demand for XRP. Regulatory hurdles, competition from other Layer-1 blockchains capturing the RWA market share, or institutions preferring private subnets that do not require the public token.
Marcus Infanger Senior Vice President of Business Development at RippleX 44:15
"For me it's really this notion of digital gold... it's very scarce... I think the store of value notion makes sense... integrating into national stockpile reserve." Unlike smart contract platforms that must compete on speed and utility for RWA plumbing, Bitcoin has solidified its distinct product-market fit as a pristine reserve asset and macro hedge, attracting sticky sovereign and state-level capital. LONG. Sovereign adoption and its entrenched status as digital gold provide a unique, non-correlated growth vector compared to utility-based crypto assets. Macroeconomic tightening, regulatory crackdowns on mining energy consumption, or sovereign entities reversing their strategic reserve policies.
Up Next

This The Block video, published March 09, 2026, features Marcus Infanger, Kelvin Sparks discussing AVVIY, BLK, BEN, ETH, SOL, XRP, BTC. 4 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Marcus Infanger, Kelvin Sparks  · Tickers: AVVIY, BLK, BEN, ETH, SOL, XRP, BTC