Ripple contributed to a white paper commissioned by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), which brings together perspectives and insights from leading practitioners across the financial services ecosystem.
Ripple’s Managing Director, Middle East & Africa, Reece Merrick, recently stated his contribution to the DFSA’s new publication: “Scaling Tokenization: The Road Ahead,” alongside leaders from BlackRock, Standard Chartered and Robinhood.
The white paper considers the conditions that may support the responsible scaling of tokenised financial assets and related market infrastructure, including within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
Aside from Merrick, other contributors include Tony Ashraf, Managing Director, Head of Technology & Operations and Head of Digital Assets, Middle East & Africa at BlackRock; Coy Garrison, Senior Director and Deputy General Counsel, Crypto at Robinhood; René Michau, Global Head, Digital Asset Advisory at Standard Chartered; Henson Orser, Founder and Chief Executive at Soter Insure; and Herman Schueller, Director, Innovation and Technology Risk Supervision at DFSA.
XRP Ledger to benefit?
According to the DFSA report, tokenization of traditional financial assets has the potential to become a significant development in mainstream financial markets, offering the prospect of greater access for investors, increased efficiency for issuers and intermediaries, and reduced risk in certain areas, especially around settlement, for the wider financial system.
Merrick shared his perspective, saying that the real shift is not just tokenized treasuries and MMFs (Money Market Funds) gaining AUM but rather their on-chain utility as collateral in repo and margin without needing to redeem to cash first. This viewpoint follows as repo markets continue to move trillions daily, with Merrick highlighting this as potential for tokenization.
Merrick anticipates massive growth in this regard over the next 12 months, predicting that a significant proportion of that will be on the XRP Ledger.
“With clear frameworks, institutional custody, and trusted settlement assets like RLUSD, the UAE, DIFC and Ripple are positioned at the forefront of this next phase,” Merrick stated.
Forecasts for the future size of tokenised assets vary considerably. Citi Institute’s base case is for the global market in tokenised financial assets to reach $5.5 trillion by 2030. A Standard Chartered and Synpulse paper estimated that demand for tokenised assets could reach $30.1 trillion by 2034.
