Ripple, the payments network, is throwing $10 million at tokenized U.S. Treasury bills. These digital assets will debut on the XRP Ledger.
OpenEden, a tokenization platform, is behind the TBILL tokens. They represent short-term U.S. government debt.
The tokens are backed by short-dated U.S. Treasuries and reverse repos. These repos are a bit of financial wizardry. Securities are sold with a promise to buy them back later at a higher price.
Tokenization is all the rage in crypto these days. It's touted as a more efficient way to handle traditional assets.
Big names are jumping on the bandwagon. BlackRock, the 800-pound gorilla of fund management, launched a similar product on Ethereum in March.
Ripple's move is part of a bigger plan. They'll allocate more funds to tokenized T-bills from OpenEden and others. No specific dates were mentioned, though.
For the uninitiated, XRP Ledger is an open-source blockchain. It uses XRP cryptocurrency for global money transfers and currency swaps.
As of Thursday, tokenized U.S. treasuries have locked up over $780 million. That's according to rwa.xyz, a tracking site.
This shift towards tokenization is shaking things up. It's making waves in how traditional assets are issued and managed.
Ripple's play could be a big deal. It's bringing a slice of traditional finance to the crypto world. The impact? Only time will tell.