Ripple-backed technology has helped put more than AED 1 billion (roughly $280 million) worth of certified polished diamonds on-chain in the UAE, the companies involved announced Tuesday. The initiative—led by Billiton Diamond and tokenization specialist Ctrl Alt—mints tokens representing high-value, certified polished diamonds on the XRP Ledger, pairing physical inventory in Dubai with on-chain issuance, custody and, eventually, secondary-market rails.
What’s happening
- Ctrl Alt says it has already tokenized more than AED 1 billion in polished diamonds, with tokens issued on the XRP Ledger. The partners selected XRP for its “fast settlement, low fees, and scalable architecture,” and say the digital assets are secured using Ripple’s enterprise-grade custody solution.
- The project is pitched as an end-to-end tokenization effort for Dubai’s certified polished diamond market. Its goals: embed provenance, grading and ownership history on-chain, compress settlement cycles and cut the paper-heavy, offline certification steps that traditionally slow diamond trades.
Why it matters
Tokenization aims to transform diamonds from an operationally complex, often illiquid commodity into a more transparent, tradable digital asset. By tying certification data and inventory management to on-chain records, buyers can verify origin, grading and chain-of-custody before a trade, while sellers and financiers potentially benefit from faster time-to-cash and improved liquidity.
Voices from the deal
- Reece Merrick of Ripple framed the move as a proof point for institutional commodity tokenization: the technology “bridges the gap between physical assets and the digital economy,” using enterprise custody to secure high-value diamond assets and provide “unrivalled trust and security.”
- Jamal Akhtar stressed the liquidity implications: tokenization “transforms polished diamonds from a traditionally illiquid asset class into a transparent, investable digital asset,” shortening working capital cycles for manufacturers and traders and opening global participation in Dubai’s luxury market.
- Robert Farquhar of Ctrl Alt underscored operational needs: Billiton required “robust, institutional-grade infrastructure” and Ctrl Alt’s platform offers a “clear, secure, and compliant route for diamond ownership to move on-chain,” from origination to market participation.
Market and regulatory context
Billiton, known for rough diamond auctions run using a Vickrey auction model, says the collaboration will expand into tokenized polished-diamond sales phases that embed real-time inventory and certification on-chain. The partners also flagged “secondary market readiness” workstreams—custody, transfer and market participation—indicating these tokens are intended as tradable, distribution-ready instruments rather than one-off digital records.
Regulatory sign-off will be crucial: the partners said next stages require approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) before launch. The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) is also credited with helping connect stakeholders and build the ecosystem, with DMCC calling itself a “bridge between commodities, capital and next-generation digital markets.” The firms first announced the partnership in July last year.
Market snapshot
At the time of the announcement, XRP traded at about $1.60.
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