A $280 million batch of certified polished diamonds has just landed on XRP Ledger (XRPL), and Ripple is right in the middle of it. Billiton Diamond, Ctrl Alt and Ripple have teamed up to drag one of the world’s most ancient luxury assets straight into the blockchain age.

The tokenization project, now live in the UAE, is backed by over AED one billion worth of verified diamonds held by Billiton’s approved partners. These high-value stones are no longer sitting idle. They have been minted into digital tokens on XRPL, utilizing Ripple’s enterprise-grade custody stack — designed for institutional security and scale.

Billiton is rolling out a full-stack platform with real-time inventory management, immutable certification tracking and a plan to list tokenized diamonds on primary and secondary markets in the future. Ctrl Alt, the company behind the move, has already handled over $850 million in assets across real estate, credit and funds. 

Diamonds are just the latest example of how physical commodities can be successful on-chain.

Dubai’s DMCC and VARA are setting the regulatory rails, with the former acting as the power broker getting all the parties on the same page and making sure the infrastructure is in place.

The result? Unclear and hard-to-track diamond markets are broken down into assets that are easy to trade and clear.

Reece Merrick of Ripple says it is a "significant leap forward" in tokenizing commodities. He is not overstating things. This is physical-to-digital transformation at an institutional level, and it includes custody, compliance and market readiness.

From a dusty vault in Dubai to a verified token on XRPL, that diamond is no longer just a rock; it is an investable, traceable and tradable financial instrument, ready for global markets to tap into.