The United Arab Emirates has taken a major step toward digitizing its luxury commodity markets, with more than $280 million worth of certified polished diamonds now represented as digital tokens on blockchain infrastructure. The project marks one of the largest commodity tokenization efforts to date in the Middle East.
Billiton Diamond and technology partner Ctrl Alt announced the completion of their initial phase, which has placed over AED 1 billion in diamond inventory onto the XRP Ledger. The partnership aims to transform how high value physical assets are traded, verified, and settled in institutional markets.
Streamlining Traditional Diamond Markets
The tokenization project addresses longstanding operational challenges in diamond trading, where provenance verification, grading authentication, and ownership transfers have historically relied on paper documentation and offline processes. By moving these functions onto distributed ledger technology, the partners expect to reduce settlement times and operational friction for market participants.
Robert Farquhar from Ctrl Alt explained the technical approach: “Billiton needed robust, institutional grade infrastructure to handle the complexity and scale of its polished diamond supply. Our proven tokenization expertise and technology provide a clear, secure, and compliant route for diamond ownership to move on chain, from asset origination to digital market participation.”
The project builds on a partnership first announced in July 2024, with the companies selecting the XRP Ledger for its settlement speed, transaction costs, and scalability characteristics. Ripple provides enterprise custody technology to secure the tokenized assets.
Regulatory Framework Takes Shape
The tokenization effort operates within the UAE’s evolving regulatory framework for digital assets. Future phases of the project require approval from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) before launching secondary market trading capabilities.
This regulatory coordination reflects the UAE’s broader strategy to position Dubai as a global hub for digital asset innovation while maintaining institutional compliance standards. The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has facilitated connections between stakeholders and helped develop the ecosystem for commodity tokenization.
Ahmed Bin Sulayem of DMCC described the organization as “a bridge between commodities, capital and next generation digital markets,” highlighting the coordination with VARA as fundamental to the rollout framework.
Market Access and Liquidity Implications
Traditional diamond markets have faced liquidity constraints due to the complexity of verifying authenticity, provenance, and quality grades. The tokenization process embeds certification data directly into the digital asset, enabling real time verification of origin, grading, and ownership history before transactions occur.
Jamal Akhtar emphasized the capital efficiency benefits: “This partnership transforms polished diamonds from a traditionally illiquid asset class into a transparent, investable digital asset that supports manufacturers, brands, and investors alike. Tokenization introduces an unprecedented level of transparency, unlocking the potential for new liquidity, shortening working capital cycles for manufacturers and traders.”
The platform is designed to support Billiton Diamond’s Vickrey auction model for rough diamond sales, with plans to expand into tokenized polished diamond sales phases. Real time inventory management capabilities are integrated into the blockchain infrastructure.
Institutional Infrastructure Development
Reece Merrick from Ripple positioned the project as validation of enterprise blockchain applications for physical commodity markets. “This initiative shows how Ripple’s technology can bridge the gap between physical assets and the digital economy, utilizing our enterprise grade custody solution to secure high value diamond assets,” he noted.
The technical infrastructure supports custody, transfer, and market participation functions, with the tokens structured as both digitized records and distribution infrastructure rather than simple proof of concept implementations.
The companies are preparing secondary market capabilities that would enable broader institutional participation in Dubai’s luxury commodity ecosystem. This development could create new investment channels for institutional allocators seeking exposure to alternative hard assets.
The project represents a significant test case for commodity tokenization at institutional scale, with implications for how other physical asset markets might adopt similar blockchain based infrastructure. Regulatory developments in digital commodities continue to evolve globally as traditional markets explore distributed ledger integration.
Market observers will watch whether the Dubai diamond tokenization model can demonstrate sustainable trading volumes and operational efficiency improvements that justify the technological infrastructure investment. The success of this project may influence similar initiatives across other commodity markets in the region.
