Ripple is deepening its foothold in the United Kingdom as tokenization gains momentum among financial institutions operating on the XRP Ledger. The company's London office — its largest location outside the United States, with more than 120 full-time employees — anchors the expansion, while the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has gained a new institutional use case through a fund launched by Aviva Investors. Ripple says clearer UK crypto rules are building stronger institutional involvement in the market.

Ripple Builds Out Its Largest International Hub

Ripple's UK and Europe Managing Director, Cassie Craddock, said the UK and Europe were the company's early market of choice, based on their capital markets, legal framework, regulatory knowledge and financial expertise.

According to Ripple, the company opened its London office in 2016 and now has more than 120 full-time employees on site, making it the company's largest second headquarters outside its head office in the United States. Craddock said office capacity has grown from two floors with considerable unused space in 2018 to a third floor that is now fully occupied, leaving the office over capacity.

Craddock addressed Ripple's UK commitment during a fireside chat at the British Residence in New York, held on the sidelines of the company's Swell conference. In an X post shared on November 4, 2026, she wrote:

Had the pleasure of joining a fireside chat at the British Residence in New York last week, on the sidelines of Swell, talking about the UK's role in the future of financial services. TLDR: it's going to be huge.

Not many people know that our London HQ is Ripple's largest office hub outside of the US. We bet big on London early on. When we took on our current office in 2018 it was two floors with a lot of empty desks. Today it is three floors, every desk is full and we are over capacity.

We made that bet because the UK had the building blocks: deep capital markets, world-leading legal frameworks and regulators, and exceptional talent. But regulation was the missing piece. Post-MiCA, a gap opened up: we were signing deals with major banks across the EU while large UK institutions held back.

That has changed. The UK now has a comprehensive cryptoasset and stablecoin framework incoming, we have a superb City Minister @LucyRigby KC MP and Digital Markets Champion Christopher Woolard CBE driving this agenda forward at real pace, and we are starting to see meaningful engagement from leading financial institutions.

Last week's announcement with @avivainvestors is a great proof point: a tokenised share class of their £22 billion Sterling Liquidity Fund, launched on the XRP Ledger.

Thanks to the British Consulate team for hosting, City of London Corporation for convening and to @citypolicychair for moderating our discussion. I'm excited for what comes next.

— Cassie Craddock (@CraddockCJ) November 4, 2026

MiCA — the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation — took full effect across the bloc at the end of 2024, giving crypto firms a single licensing regime spanning EU member states. That divergence, in Craddock's account, is what opened the gap: EU bank deals moved ahead while large UK institutions held back for domestic rules.

Ripple Secures UK Regulatory Permissions

Ripple's London growth has run alongside a broader regulatory push in the UK. In September 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched its new authorization gateway for crypto firms, even though the full regime is not scheduled to take effect until October 25, 2027. The early gateway gives firms a runway to secure authorization ahead of the regime's full go-live.

In January 2026, the FCA granted Ripple an Electronic Money Institution licence and a registration for cryptoassets. The permissions enable the company to extend Ripple Payments to UK institutions, including cross-border payment services that use digital assets. For Ripple, the approvals provide the regulatory clarity needed to do business with banks, asset managers and other regulated financial institutions in the UK.

£22B Aviva Fund Moves Onto XRP Ledger

The most prominent recent example of institutional engagement on XRPL is Aviva Investors. On October 26, Aviva launched a tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger. The underlying fund holds a value of approximately £22 billion, making it Aviva Investors' largest fund.

The tokenized share class uses a structure referred to as a “digital twin,” in which the on-chain share remains connected to, but is not part of, the existing fund structure. Investors hold the same objectives, risk tolerance, liquidity and regulatory features as in the traditional version of the fund. The Aviva tokenized Sterling fund cost £50 million to set up, and assets in its two tokenized share classes have topped £86 million.

That £86 million remains a small fraction of the underlying fund's roughly £22 billion — a scale gap that illustrates how early institutional tokenization still is, even as the “digital twin” design lets Aviva extend a regulated fund to on-chain wallets without restructuring the fund itself.

XRPL Gains Another Institutional Tokenization Use Case

The Sterling fund is Aviva's second liquidity token on XRPL. Its initial share class tokenization debuted in July 2026, following the announcement of a partnership with Ripple in February.

Eligible investors with digital wallets can purchase the new tokenized version of the Sterling fund, whose underlying assets remain with custodian BNY.

For Ripple, the launch is part of a broader push toward institutional adoption of XRPL through the issuance and management of tokenized fund interests on public blockchain infrastructure. With the UK's cryptoasset and stablecoin framework still incoming and the FCA's full regime set for October 2027, whether more UK institutions follow Aviva onto XRPL is a thread worth watching.