Billiton Diamond and tokenization company Ctrl Alt said on Tuesday they had moved more than $280 million in certified polished diamonds on-chain in the United Arab Emirates, using Ripple’s escrow technology to secure the assets and the XRP Ledger to mint tokens linked to physical inventory.
The initiative, framed as an institutional-level tokenization process for polished stones in the UAE, has already tokenized more than AED billion ($280 million) in diamond inventory, the companies said.
While the companies are positioning the project as a route to faster settlement and clearer provenance data, the next phase depends on regulatory clearance: a broader launch of the platform and any move towards broader distribution would be subject to approval from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).
The companies said that Ripple’s enterprise custody tools will secure tokenized inventory, while XRPL will handle issuance and transfers. That puts Ripple in the plumbing layer rather than the market layer, a distinction that matters, because the toughest question in tokenized products is not minting tokens, but whether they can be meaningfully traded with tight spreads, reliable prices, and clear redemption mechanisms.
The companies also noted a longer range of “lifecycle” features – such as custody, transfers and preparation for the secondary market – but did not share details about how refunds would work, what minimum lot sizes would look like, or how prices would be formed for individual stones, all key factors for any market that wants to move beyond a controlled pilot.
Dubai DMCC said it played a coordinating role in connecting stakeholders and supporting the ecosystem around commodity tokenization, as the emirate pushes to make RWAs a real line of business.
