Ripple Recruits LME Executive for Tokenized Assets Push

Ripple has made another significant move in its expansion into institutional trading and corporate finance by hiring Joseph Thompson, senior vice president and head of treasury at the London Metal Exchange (LME).

Thompson is leaving the LME on August 31 to join Ripple's Trading and Markets team, where he will work on tokenized real-world assets. This appointment brings experience from one of the world's largest commodities exchanges into a business focused on liquidity, collateral, and blockchain-based capital markets.

Ripple has been pushing deeper into corporate treasury and institutional infrastructure, with its acquisition of GTreasury for $1 billion in 2025 and the integration of traditional cash management with digital-asset capabilities through Ripple Treasury. The company also launched native digital-asset functionality across its Treasury platform.

The XRP Ledger is gaining more tokenized products, with Aviva Investors recently launching a tokenized liquidity fund on XRPL, extending the network's real-world asset footprint. Ripple and Boston Consulting Group estimate that tokenized assets could approach $19 trillion by 2033, although adoption will depend heavily on regulation and institutional demand.

This hire does not mean the LME itself is adopting Ripple technology, but rather shows Ripple recruiting expertise from traditional market infrastructure as it tries to expand beyond payments and deeper into institutional finance.