Joseph Thompson, senior vice president and head of treasury at the London Metal Exchange, will leave the exchange on August 31, 2026, to join Ripple’s Trading and Markets team, focusing on tokenization strategy and delivery. Thompson brings nearly a decade at the LME and more than 15 years in financial services spanning liquidity, funding, collateral and risk roles at Deutsche Bank, ICAP and London Clearing House, plus Association of Corporate Treasurers certification. Ripple has expanded beyond cross-border payments into custody, stablecoins, treasury technology, tokenized assets and institutional trading, including investments in ZILO and Licuido to support issuance, transfer-agent and collateral infrastructure. Ripple Prime, built through the company’s $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road that closed in October 2025, has launched Delta One total return swaps linked to U.S.-listed equities, equity indices and digital assets and says it clears more than $3 trillion in annual trades for over 300 institutional clients; the business has also joined a DTCC working group on tokenized securities. Earlier moves include the $1 billion GTreasury acquisition integrated into Ripple Treasury, more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital at Ripple Prime, a $275 million senior unsecured notes placement, and tokenized products on the XRP Ledger such as Aviva Investors’ liquidity fund. The hire adds commodities-exchange treasury expertise to Ripple’s tokenization push but does not confirm a commodity product, an LME partnership, or that future tokenized assets will use XRP.