Tokenisation in the Middle East and Africa: Different Paths, One Clear Trend

Tokenisation is gaining momentum across the Middle East and Africa but not necessarily in a uniform way. Rather than following a single playbook, adoption across the region reflects local regulatory philosophies, market needs and economic realities. What unites these diverse approaches is one clear trend: stablecoins are emerging as the most practical and widely adopted form of tokenisation.

The Middle East: Regulation-Led Tokenisation

In the Gulf, tokenisation is largely being driven from the top down. Jurisdictions such as the UAE have established clear regulatory frameworks that allow traditional financial assets to move on-chain in a compliant way. This has enabled tangible progress such as tokenised real estate offerings that have sold out within minutes.

Real estate tokenisation is one of the most advanced and publicised use case across the MEA region, with pilot programmes emerging in both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Dubai’s Land Department (DLD) has launched a real estate tokenisation project under its Real Estate Evolution Space initiative, a pilot which enables fractional property ownership aiming to broaden access to real estate investment and enhance liquidity. Saudi Arabia’s Real Estate Registry and Real Estate General Authority have also deployed a national tokenised property ownership system, enabling property rights to be represented digitally on a blockchain and fractionalised. This project is part of Vision 2030 and positions the Kingdom among the first countries to embed tokenisation at a national registry level.

Beyond real estate, tokenisation is also being explored within Islamic finance structures. Sukuk, which represent asset-backed certificates compliant with Sharia principles, are structurally well suited to on-chain issuance and servicing. Tokenised sukuk pilots and discussions across the region reflect an effort to modernise distribution, enhance transparency of underlying assets and improve secondary market liquidity while preserving compliance requirements.

More broadly, Abu Dhabi has issued the first blockchain-based bond on a major exchange, Dubai has approved the Middle East’s first tokenised money-market fund and Bahrain’s ATME exchange has tokenised assets from gold to private equity. Institutions are already using tokenised assets as collateral while continuing to earn yield.

Crucially, success in the UAE has not come from experimentation alone, but from regulatory certainty. Bodies such as ADGM and VARA have provided regulatory clarity within their respective jurisdictions, while the federal Capital Markets Authority (CMA) – newly established in 2026 as the successor to the Securities and Commodities Authority – now oversees onshore capital markets with an enhanced statutory framework. Together with guidance from the Central Bank of the UAE on payment tokens and stored value, this layered regulatory model allows firms to treat tokenised assets as an extension of traditional finance rather than a speculative alternative.

Elsewhere in the region, the approach is cautious but still constructive. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have shown limited appetite for public cryptoassets, yet strong interest in blockchain technology applied to assets already held within banks. Here, the narrative is not ‘crypto’ but efficiency, transparency, and better financial market infrastructure. Collectively, regulators in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are setting a clear direction of travel.

Africa: Utility-Driven Tokenisation

In Africa, the story is different. Tokenisation so far has not so much been about innovation at the edges of capital markets. Instead, it is about solving core economic frictions. Many African economies face persistent currency devaluation, capital controls, weak correspondent banking relationships and large unbanked or underbanked populations.

In this environment, the most powerful form of tokenisation has been the tokenisation of money itself. Stablecoins – particularly USD-denominated coins – are widely used by individuals, SMEs and corporates to preserve value and move funds across borders quickly and reliably. Nigeria alone recorded nearly $22 billion in stablecoin transactions between July 2023 and June 2024, making it the largest stablecoin market on the continent. Broader analysis suggests that stablecoin transaction flows in Sub-Saharan Africa may have exceeded $54 billion between mid-2024 and mid-2025 – with stablecoins representing ~43% of total crypto transaction value in the region.

Adoption relative to national economies is significant. A recent IMF analysis indicates that stablecoin flows in Africa and the Middle East, relative to GDP in 2024, were equivalent to about 6.7%. Analysts regard this as one of the highest flow-to-GDP ratios globally, underscoring stablecoins’ real-world financial use.

For exporters and importers, stablecoins can provide a more efficient alternative to traditional USD clearing. For individuals, they provide a hedge against local currency instability. In markets such as Nigeria, crypto and stablecoin usage  has been widely adopted, driven by necessity rather than speculation.

Importantly, Africa’s path to digital finance may in some cases develop alongside (or beyond) traditional banking infrastructure. Just as mobile money leapfrogged card payments, stablecoins are leapfrogging bank accounts, integrating seamlessly into wallet-based and popular mobile money ecosystems.

Reports and industry analysis also highlight initiatives in Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya exploring blockchain and tokenisation for collateral frameworks, Central Bank Digital Currency pilots, and modernised financial instruments, enabled by updated regulatory structures and fintech task forces.

Why Stablecoins Sit at the Centre

Across both the Middle East and Africa, one lesson is clear: tokenising assets without a reliable settlement layer offers limited value. Tokenised real estate, commodities or securities only become truly useful when they can be settled instantly, across borders and without counterparty risk. This is why stablecoins are emerging as the fastest-scaling tokenised product. They act as a settlement layer for tokenised markets and as the connective tissue between traditional finance and on-chain infrastructure.

A Patchwork Today, a Platform Tomorrow?

Tokenisation in the Middle East and Africa today is advancing in a patchwork of different assets with different motivations and at differing speeds. That is not necessarily a weakness; instead, it reflects the pragmatics of market-led adoption.

What is consistent, however, is that stablecoins are moving first. As their use becomes normalised, they will increasingly enable deeper tokenisation of assets, better collateral management and more efficient capital markets. In MEA, tokenisation is not theoretical. It is already reshaping how value moves. Stablecoins are becoming the place where that transformation becomes impossible to ignore.