Billiton Diamond and tokenization company Ctrl Alt said on Tuesday they had moved more than $280 million worth of certified polished diamonds onto chain in the United Arab Emirates, using Ripple’s custody technology to secure the assets and the XRP Ledger to mint tokens tied to the physical inventory.
The plan, which aims to establish an institutional-grade tokenization pipeline for polished gemstones held in the UAE, has already tokenized diamond inventory worth more than Dh1 billion ($280 million), the companies said.
While the companies are positioning the project as a path to faster settlements and clearer provenance data, the next phase depends on regulatory clearance: a wider platform launch and any move towards wider distribution will be approved by Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).
Ripple’s enterprise custody facility will secure the tokenized inventory, while XRPL will handle issuance and transfers, the companies said. This puts Ripple at the pipeline level rather than the market level—a distinction that matters because the more difficult question in tokenized commodities is not minting tokens, but whether they can be meaningfully traded with tight spreads, reliable pricing, and clear redemption mechanisms.
The companies also proposed longer “lifecycle” features — such as escrow, transfers and secondary market preparation — but did not reveal details about how redemptions would work, what minimum lot sizes might look like, or how individual stones would be priced, key factors for any market that wants to move beyond controlled pilots.
DMCC Dubai said that as the emirate of Dubai promotes RWA as a true line of business, it plays a coordinating role by connecting stakeholders and supporting the ecosystem around the tokenization of commodities.
