Tokenization of commodities sees to be an emerging trend in the booming RWA market. After all the attention that tokenized gold coin has created via XAUT, now it’s on diamonds.
In a landmark initiative that bridges the centuries-old diamond trade with modern blockchain infrastructure, Billiton Diamond and tokenization firm Ctrl Alt have jointly tokenized over $280 million (AED 1 billion+) worth of certified polished diamonds held in the UAE.
The move represents one of the largest real-world asset (RWA) tokenization efforts in the luxury commodities sector to date.
This tokenization attempt is expected to shorten working capital cycles for manufacturers and traders, reduce operational friction. With the tokenized polished diamond sales planned too in the coming phases of the initiative, it will ensure broader market participation.
Over time, Biliton will launch a tokenized diamond platform to support both primary issuance and secondary market trading.
Here’s How
Tokenizing $280 Million of Diamonds – Here’s How
Billiton Diamond FZCO is a Dubai-based diamond management and auction services firm that operates across both rough and polished diamonds. It is best known for running structured diamond auctions, including a Vickrey auction model. Meanwhile, Ctrl Alt is a web3 native infrastructure provider firmss.
Under the collaboration, Billiton supplies certified polished diamond inventory from approved partners, while Ctrl Alt provides the end-to-end tokenization infrastructure that moves these physical assets on-chain.
Each polished diamond is then digitally represented through a blockchain-based token. This token will be linked to real-time inventory data, grading certificates, provenance records, and ownership history, creating a verifiable digital twin of the physical stone.
Source: Linkedin PostBilliton and Ctrl+Alt have chosen XRP Ledger (XRPL), for the minting of these tokens. XRP Ledger (XRPL) is chosen for its fast settlement and low transaction costs, while enterprise-grade custody is handled using Ripple’s custody technology to ensure secure management of the underlying assets.
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This structure will allow diamonds considered traditionally illiquid and slow to transact, to be held, transferred, and traded easily. There are also possibilies of future secondary-market activity given regulatory approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).
Boom for Commodities Market in RWA?
The Billiton–Ctrl Alt initiative lands at a time when commodities are emerging as a major pillar of the real-world asset (RWA) market.
As of writing, tokenized RWAs are valued at roughly $23.5 billion, with commodities accounting for about $4.7 billion. This is just over 20% of the total RWA market, according to rwa.xyz data.
Also Read: Inside Tokenized Gold Market
And now, the $280 million+ in tokenized polished diamonds represents around 1.2% of the entire RWA market and approximately 6% of the tokenized commodities segment.
Thus, this makes it one of the largest single diamond-focused tokenization efforts to date. While blockchain has previously been used for diamond traceability and provenance—through platforms such as De Beers’ Tracr and Everledger—large-scale tokenization of investment-grade polished diamond inventory has remained limited.
The Billiton–Ctrl Alt collaboration therefore marks a meaningful shift. They might be a start to moving diamonds from a niche, illiquid luxury asset toward a verifiable, on-chain commodity within the fast-growing RWA ecosystem.
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Source: https://coingape.com/block-of-fame/pulse/big-rwa-move-billiton-and-ctrl-alt-tokenize-over-280-million-worth-diamonds/
