Ripple Hires LME Treasury Expert to Drive Institutional Tokenization

Ripple has made a significant move in expanding its institutional trading capabilities by hiring Joseph Thompson, senior vice president and head of treasury at the London Metal Exchange (LME).

Thompson will be joining Ripple's Trading and Markets team on August 31, bringing with him expertise from one of the world's largest commodities exchanges. His role is expected to include work tied to tokenized real-world assets.

This appointment marks a significant step for Ripple as it continues to build out its institutional finance capabilities. The company has been actively pushing into corporate treasury and institutional infrastructure, including acquiring GTreasury for $1 billion in 2025 and integrating it into Ripple Treasury.

Ripple is also increasing its focus on tokenization, with recent investments aimed at improving issuance, transfer agency, and collateral infrastructure for institutional markets. The XRP Ledger is gaining more tokenized products, with Aviva Investors launching a tokenized liquidity fund on XRPL.