Ripple President Monica Long: XRP Ledger Hits ‘Light Switch’ Moment as Institutional Adoption Accelerates

Ripple President Monica Long says the change is particularly visible on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), where financial institutions are beginning to use tokenized assets rather than simply testing the technology.

In a recent post cited in the reports, Long described the transition as a “veritable light switch flip,” pointing to a move “from bank pilots to production” and from issuing tokenized money market and liquidity funds to actually using them.

Her comments came as Ripple expanded its institutional tokenization strategy through investments in ZILO and Licuido, two companies focused on different parts of the infrastructure required to bring traditional financial products onto blockchain networks.

Ripple Targets Institutional Tokenization Infrastructure

Ripple’s strategy goes beyond simply putting financial assets onchain. The company is seeking to build infrastructure for the issuance, transfer, custody, settlement, and use of tokenized assets as collateral.

Monica Long says institutional finance is shifting from tokenized-asset pilots to live production, with funds and liquidity products actively used on the XRP Ledger. Source: Monica Long via X

According to the reports, Ripple’s investment in ZILO adds regulated transfer-agency and fund-administration capabilities, while Licuido contributes technology focused on token issuance and collateral mobility.

That broader infrastructure matters because institutional investors require more than a blockchain ledger to operate regulated financial products. They need systems that can handle ownership records, compliance requirements, transactions, and the movement of collateral throughout an asset’s lifecycle.

Ripple has increasingly positioned the XRP Ledger around these requirements. The company describes XRPL as a public blockchain designed for the creation, transfer, and exchange of digital assets while supporting regulatory and compliance features. Ripple says the network has processed more than $1 trillion in value and has operated for more than 12 years.

The network also uses a consensus mechanism rather than proof-of-work mining. Ripple says validators reach agreement on transaction ordering and outcomes every three to five seconds.

Aviva Investors Adds a Real-World Use Case

The institutional narrative gained another concrete example through Aviva Investors.

In February, Ripple and Aviva Investors announced a collaboration to explore tokenizing traditional fund structures on the XRP Ledger. Aviva Investors described the initiative as its first of its kind involving tokenized solutions, while Ripple said the partnership would build on its experience with financial institutions in other markets.

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Aviva Investors’ tokenization of its USD Liquidity Fund on XRPL, following Central Bank of Ireland approval, underscores growing institutional adoption of on-chain fund structures. Source: Ripple via X

The collaboration was significant because it involved a conventional asset management firm rather than a crypto-native company.

Aviva Investors said tokenization could improve time and cost efficiency for investors. Ripple’s Nigel Khakoo similarly argued that tokenized fund structures could create operational efficiencies across the investment industry.

The development has since progressed into an identifiable fund infrastructure on XRPL. Aviva Investors currently lists its US Dollar Liquidity Fund as a money-market product, with multiple share classes and assets of more than $1 billion in some classes.

The broader direction also follows earlier institutional activity on XRPL. In 2024, Archax introduced access to a tokenized version of abrdn’s US dollar liquidity fund on the ledger, marking one of the network’s early tokenized money-market fund use cases.

Tokenization Needs More Than Issuance

For Ripple, the bigger question is what institutions can do with tokenized assets after they are created.

Nigel Khakoo, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Trading and Markets, emphasized this point in comments cited by the reports.

“The real value lies in what can be done with a token.”

The idea is that a tokenized fund should be usable across financial markets. That could include buying and selling, settling transactions, or using the asset as collateral for lending and other financing activities.

This distinction separates tokenization from simple digital representation. An asset becomes more useful when it can move through multiple stages of the financial system without returning to fragmented legacy processes.

Licuido has also described this approach in its own XRPL work. The company says it has tested money-market-fund tokens on the XRPL Devnet and is exploring how tokenized collateral could support more efficient settlement and liquidity.

XRP Ledger and the 24/7 Capital Markets Model

Long’s comments also point toward a broader shift in how institutional markets operate.

Traditional financial markets generally depend on defined trading hours, settlement windows and multiple intermediaries. Tokenized assets can potentially operate continuously on blockchain infrastructure, subject to the rules and operating models established by the institutions involved.

Ripple’s strategic investments in ZILO and Licuido aim to strengthen AI-driven FinTech, regulated transfer agency, and real-world asset tokenization capabilities on the XRP Ledger.  Source: @BlockzeitE via X

Ripple has promoted the XRP Ledger as infrastructure for this type of activity, highlighting fast settlement, predictable transaction costs, and built-in features designed for regulated financial applications.

The company has also pursued tokenized U.S. Treasuries and other real-world assets on XRPL. In 2025, Ripple announced that Ondo Finance would bring tokenized U.S. Treasuries to the ledger, with investors able to mint and redeem the product around the clock using RLUSD.

That development illustrates the broader direction of the XRP Ledger ecosystem: connecting tokenized assets with payments, liquidity, and settlement rather than treating tokenization as an isolated use case.

Institutional Adoption Enters a New Phase

Long’s “light switch” characterization reflects a wider industry transition from experimentation to deployment. However, institutional adoption remains a process rather than a single event.

The presence of regulated asset managers, custodians and financial infrastructure providers on XRPL provides evidence of growing experimentation and implementation. Yet the scale of that adoption will ultimately depend on transaction volumes, regulatory acceptance, investor demand, and whether tokenized products deliver measurable efficiency gains.

Ripple’s investments in infrastructure providers such as ZILO and Licuido are therefore significant less for the individual transactions than for the financial plumbing they are intended to create.

The XRP Ledger already hosts tokenized financial products, while Ripple continues to add services around issuance, custody, settlement, and liquidity. As these components become more interconnected, the network is increasingly being positioned as infrastructure for institutional digital assets rather than solely as a cryptocurrency settlement network.

For now, Long’s “light switch” comment captures an important shift in the narrative: institutional blockchain adoption is increasingly being measured not by the number of pilots launched, but by whether tokenized assets are being issued, traded, settled, and used in real financial workflows.