ADI Chain selected as settlement infrastructure for UAE’s dirham-backed stablecoin, transforming blockchain into government-grade payment rails
The global stablecoin market now exceeds $300 billion in circulation, and the tokenization of real-world assets is on track to reach trillions by 2030. The economic opportunity is undeniable as digital assets move from experimentation toward institutional-scale deployment.
Yet this future cannot scale without solving a key challenge in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. These regions face the biggest barriers, as their economies rely heavily on centralized national payment systems and strict currency-control regimes that require full government visibility and jurisdictional control over transactions.
Many of these countries also lack unified digital and financial regulatory frameworks, making it difficult to adopt technologies that don’t align natively with their regulatory, monetary, and data-sovereignty requirements. This creates a noticeable infrastructure gap that limits participation from some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
ADI Chain has emerged as the solution. The ADI Foundation was established by Sirius International Holding, the digital arm of IHC, which is the largest listed holding company in the MENA region. The foundation developed ADI Chain as the first institutional-grade L2 in MENA for stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization, purpose-built for emerging markets.
The Infrastructure Gap Nobody Built For
The current blockchain infrastructure was built for permissionless trading and decentralized finance. These priorities don’t align with what governments need: compliance built into the system, strong controls from the beginning, and customization for each country without breaking interoperability.
Speed and low transaction costs matter, but they’re baseline requirements. The real bottleneck is the lack of infrastructure built with compliance at its core. Governments need blockchain rails that operate within existing frameworks and meet the same security standards as traditional financial systems.
This mismatch between what sovereign institutions require and what blockchain networks deliver has blocked meaningful adoption for years.
Building Tomorrow’s Infrastructure
Abu Dhabi has spent five decades turning vision into infrastructure. The emirate has consistently adopted new economic drivers across AI, aviation, finance, and digital systems – the track record matters when building technology for government-scale deployment.
The ADI Foundation represents the digital extension of that vision, and ADI Chain is the infrastructure that brings it to life: a blockchain infrastructure built for governments, central banks, and institutions managing trillions in real-world assets. As the first institutional L2 in the MENA region, ADI Chain has been selected to host a dirham-backed stablecoin set to be regulated by the UAE Central Bank. Beyond stablecoin infrastructure, ADI has partnered with ADREC to tokenize Abu Dhabi’s real estate, signed an MoU with Emirates Driving Company to pilot blockchain-based solutions, and is building rails for onboarding emerging economies at scale.
Three Pillars: Compliance, Efficiency, Security
ADI’s architecture was designed to solve requirements that sovereign institutions cannot compromise on:
Compliance-ready infrastructure begins with the ADI Foundation, which is regulated under the ADGM framework. This setup enables governments to deploy blockchain systems that meet their compliance standards while maintaining interoperability across borders.
Efficient execution leverages ZKsync’s Airbender technology, making ADI the first blockchain to implement the latest generation of zero-knowledge proof systems.
Security is built into ADI Chain’s architecture and strengthened by OpenZeppelin, which has completed a full audit covering core contracts, infrastructure, token standards, and critical systems.
The Flagship Use Case: Dirham-backed Stablecoin
ADI Chain was chosen to host the UAE Dirham-backed stablecoin, which will be issued by two major players in the region: First Abu Dhabi Bank and IHC, and is set to be regulated by the UAE Central Bank.
The structure matters. FAB and IHC issue the stablecoin. The Central Bank provides regulatory oversight. ADI Chain delivers the settlement rails. This collaboration creates an infrastructure that financial institutions can build on without competitive conflicts.
This marks a milestone for regulated national stablecoins on a public Layer 2 in the MENA region. The credibility signal is unmistakable: when a Central Bank trusts your infrastructure for monetary settlement, governments worldwide take notice.
This key use case represents a larger vision. ADI is building infrastructure to support multiple governments in launching regional stablecoins, all operating on the same compliance-ready, efficient, and secure settlement layer.
About ADI Foundation & ADI Chain
ADI Foundation is an Abu Dhabi-based non-profit organization founded by Sirius International Holding (a subsidiary of IHC), dedicated to empowering governments and institutions in emerging markets through blockchain infrastructure and partnerships needed to unlock sovereign digital economies and drive large-scale social and economic inclusion. Its mission is to bring 1 billion people into the digital economy by 2030, building on a strong foundation of 500+ million people already within its reach.
ADI Chain is the first institutional Layer 2 blockchain for stablecoins and real-world assets in the MENA region. Built by the ADI Foundation, ADI Chain provides settlement infrastructure for First Abu Dhabi Bank and IHC’s forthcoming UAE Central Bank-regulated stablecoin. Built on three pillars (Compliance, Efficiency, Security), ADI Chain serves governments implementing blockchain infrastructure across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
For more information, visit the Official Website, follow on LinkedIn, or X.
