Billiton Diamond and tokenization firm Ctrl Alt said on Tuesday they had moved more than $280 million of certified polished diamonds on-chain in the UAE, using Ripple’s escrow technology to secure the assets and the XRP Ledger to mint tokens tied to physical inventory.
The initiative — framed as an institutional-grade tokenization pipeline for polished stones held in the UAE — has already tokenized over AED 1 billion ($280 million) in diamond holdings, the firms said.
While the companies are positioning the project as a path to faster settlement and clearer provenance data, the next phase depends on regulatory approval: a wider platform launch and any move towards wider distribution will be subject to approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).
The companies said Ripple’s corporate custody tools will secure the tokenized holdings, while XRPL will handle issuance and transfers. That puts Ripple in the plumbing layer rather than the marketplace layer — a distinction that matters because the harder question in tokenized commodities isn’t minting tokens, it’s whether they can trade meaningfully with tight spreads, reliable prices, and clear redemption mechanics.
The companies also outlined a longer path of “lifecycle” features — such as escrow, transfers and secondary market readiness — but did not share details about how redemptions would work, what minimum lot sizes might look like or how pricing would be formed for individual stones, all key factors for any market looking to move beyond a controlled pilot.
Dubai’s DMCC said it played a coordinating role by connecting stakeholders and supporting the commodity tokenization ecosystem as the emirate pushes to make RWAs a real business line.
