Ripple Taps LME's Treasury Chief for Tokenization Push

Ripple's tokenization push just landed a Wall Street-grade hire. The company is bringing on Joseph Thompson, who currently serves as senior vice president and head of treasury at the London Metal Exchange, to join its trading and markets team, according to a report published Aug. 28. Thompson will focus on tokenization strategy and delivery, though Ripple has stayed quiet on his actual title, his start date, or who he'll report to.

The Executive Behind Ripple's Tokenization Push

Thompson is leaving the LME on Aug. 31 after nearly a decade at the exchange, which runs futures and options markets for industrial metals. His current title sits atop a résumé built for institutional market infrastructure. Earlier LME documents identified him as head of investment and liquidity and collateral risk management, a role touching clearing operations, eligible collateral and financial risk management directly.

Before the LME, Joseph Thompson spent time inside Deutsche Bank's group treasury division handling liquidity management and funding. He also worked liquidity risk at ICAP and collateral and liquidity management risk at the London Clearing House. That's more than 15 years in financial services, backed by certification from the Association of Corporate Treasurers. Exchanges, clearing, collateral, institutional liquidity: Ripple just hired someone who's touched all four.

What Does the LME Hire Signal for Ripple and XRP?

This is a personnel addition to Ripple's tokenization operations, not a partnership between Ripple and the LME, and it doesn't confirm that any future tokenized asset will run on XRP. Ripple has expanded well beyond cross-border payments into custody, stablecoins, treasury technology, tokenized assets and institutional trading. Its tokenization arm already supports the issuance and management of funds, bonds, securities and other real-world assets, and the company recently invested in ZILO and Licuido to add token issuance and collateral tools. Ripple has said those deals help it build regulated transfer agency, trading and collateral mobility into its capital markets infrastructure.

Here's the skeptical read. Thompson's background at a commodities exchange might matter if Ripple ever launches a metals-tokenization product. Ripple hasn't announced one. Not yet, anyway. It hasn't even said Thompson will build anything tied to metals traded on the LME. What's left is a résumé addition dressed up as a strategic signal, and that's a pattern with Ripple lately: stack the credentials, tease the direction, hold back the product.

The pattern fits Ripple's broader institutional buildout. Its Ripple Prime unit recently launched a Delta One business for institutional investors, letting hedge funds and asset managers execute total return swaps linked to U.S.-listed equities, equity indices and digital assets through a single counterparty, with cross margining available across foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income, equities and digital assets.

Hidden Road, Ripple Prime and the Institutional Buildout

Ripple Prime traces back to the company's $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, which closed in October 2025. The brokerage now clears more than $3 trillion in annual trades for over 300 institutional clients, according to Ripple. As that business expanded, Ripple also joined a DTCC working group focused on tokenized securities, though membership there doesn't place XRP inside the DTCC's clearing system.

So who replaces Thompson at the LME? Nobody's been named. Ripple hasn't set a timetable for whatever Thompson builds next, either. For a company that just spent over a billion dollars buying its way into institutional finance, staying quiet on the specifics reads less like patience and more like a product that isn't ready to be named.