U.S. based DTCC to acquire Abu Dhabi digital asset infrastructure provider Securrency

U.S. based DTCC to acquire Abu Dhabi digital asset infrastructure provider Securrency

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, an American post-trade financial services company providing clearing and settlement services to the financial markets known as DTCC, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Abu Dhabi based Securrency Inc. (“Securrency”), a leading developer of institutional-grade, digital asset infrastructure invested in by Mubadala sovereign Fund.

Securrency will become a fully-owned subsidiary of DTCC and will operate under the name DTCC Digital Assets. Nadine Chakar, CEO of Securrency, will join DTCC as Managing Director, Global Head of DTCC Digital Assets, reporting to Lynn Bishop, DTCC Managing Director and Chief Information Officer. Chakar will also join the DTCC Management Committee. In addition, Dan Doney, CTO and founder of Securrency, John Hensel, COO and co-founder, and other members of the Securrency leadership team, as well as roughly 100 Securrency staff of full-time employees or contractors, will become DTCC employees.

Securrency is a blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology developer that raised $30 million in 2021 from State Street, US Bank, WisdomTree Investments and others. It has worked with WisdomTree to help the asset manager launch “blockchain-enabled” funds that keep a secondary record of share ownership on the Stellar or Ethereum blockchains.

Frank La Salla, President, CEO and Director, DTCC, said, “Securrency is an important strategic acquisition that will give us the technology to drive market-wide transformation by enabling end-to-end digital lifecycle processing for tokenized assets, digital currencies and other financial instruments. By bringing together DTCC’s commitment to providing market stability and our unparalleled network of financial market participants with the sophistication of the Securrency technology, we will be in a leading position to unlock the value of digital assets and help guide the industry through its digital transformation journey. We believe this next generation of financial market infrastructure will further reduce settlement times, facilitate market transparency and risk management, enhance regulatory oversight and controls, and unlock efficiency and innovation to create an improved investor experience.”

By combining DTCC’s digital capabilities and Securrency’s technology, DTCC will fast-track development of its enterprise digital asset platform to unlock the power of institutional DeFi. DTCC will leverage the technology over time to embed digital assets within its existing products and services, develop new, regulatory-compliant blockchain-based offerings and explore use cases with the industry, including buyside asset managers, broker-dealers and custodians, to collaborate on new DTCC blockchain-based solutions.

In addition, DTCC will lead the industry’s development of a robust, global digital infrastructure by licensing the Securrency technology and offering professional services. Firms will be able to leverage the technology to transform and evolve their operating models and to create innovative, new digital asset services alone or in collaboration with other market participants – similar to how WisdomTree licenses Securrency’s software as part of the infrastructure for its WisdomTree Prime™ offering that provides tokenized assets and funds via digital wallets for retail investors and consumers.

Chakar said, “As we join forces with DTCC, we are excited to bring together DTCC’s infrastructure capabilities with Securrency’s technology to embrace a future where the digitization of capital markets is at the forefront of innovation. These capabilities will allow DTCC to partner with the industry to build a resilient and scalable infrastructure critical to the mass adoption of digital assets. Together, we will unlock opportunities to reimagine compliance, liquidity, efficiency and interoperability in trading real-world assets on the blockchain.”

DTCC also plans to provide global leadership to foster industry-wide collaboration to help avoid fragmentation with different digital technologies and standards. Securrency’s technology can address this issue by acting as a DLT-agnostic harmonization layer that promotes interoperability, liquidity, transparency and security.

La Salla said, “We look forward to building on our past work to drive consensus around the standards, controls and frameworks necessary to support regulatory-compliant digital asset solutions and development of the right architecture and infrastructure to ensure widespread interoperability. We’re excited to welcome our new colleagues to the DTCC team and to begin collaborating as a group to strengthen market stability and resilience and drive greater efficiencies, productivity, risk mitigation and liquidity in the global financial markets.”

This announcement comes as John Hensel, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Executive Officer, MENA, Securrency told IBS intelligence, “The UAE is ramping up its efforts to become a global blockchain hub.” In his interview he commented on why they chose UAE out of all the other countries globally including, USA, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore.

According to Hensel, SEC ( Securities and Exchange Commission) in the USA has portrayed a conservative approach to the regulation of digital assets, so exploring other regulatory jurisdictions they found that the UAE was a credible, well positioned young financial center that embraced technology with experienced regulatory experts from the USA, Australia, Singapore and others.

He explains, “ After being here for 6 years we have seen the landscape change and become more favorable for investors partnering under FSRA and who are benefiting from the protection of ADGM which will grow opportunities locally for us given we were first movers and have strong relations with sovereign wealth entities, broker dealers, fund managers as key stakeholders.”

Securrency entered the ADGM FSRA regulatory sandbox in 2017 and secured a Financial Services Permission (FSP) from ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to deal in investments as a matched principal and provide custody for those investments in 2022. The license enabled Securrency Capital to provide trading of digital assets to a variety of clients, including retail clients.

Securrency had raised $30 million in its latest funding round. The funds were used to roll out the company’s expansion plans. The Series B funding round included existing investor WisdomTree Investment along with Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala-backed Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, State Street and U.S. Bank. Prior to that in 202, The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) had invested in Securrency, a US-based developer of blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology through its ventures fund.

The company also signed a strategic partnership with leading investment management and banking firm, Musharaka Capital in KSA, to develop a compliant platform for issuing digital securities in Saudi Arabia in 2020.

UAE Banks will offer crypto services on their own

UAE Banks will offer crypto services on their own

In a recent interview with Stephen Richardson Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Banking at Fireblocks he discussed the growth and work being done in MENA given the positive stance UAE regulators have taken with regards to digital assets, and he noted that more UAE banks are entering the crypto space and will eventually bring crypto in house.  

He starts off by noting how exciting it has been to see the growth in the region and to support it and when asked about the entrance of the banks into the arena he explained that from a technology perspective their requirements are the same as those of crypto native players.

He states, “Our platform has been utilized by crypto native players over the last few years, and they are putting our system to the test when it comes to the applications and use cases being implemented. We have learned from them, from their activity, the scale they put through the system.”

According to his experience, crypto native and fintech players are quick to execute and scale, while banks tend to be a bit more conservative.

He notes, “With Banks there is significant testing, proof of concepts, and pilots that then get into early-stage beta rollouts to customers, then get scaled into full blown production. So, the journey with banks is longer and significantly slower.”

He reasserts that while technically they are both in the same boat, when it comes to risk, operational frameworks, banks are much more attentive to that. “While with Fintech and crypto exchanges a significant portion of their business, 99% comes from digital assets, with banks they are more conservative because 99% of their business is outside of digital assets.”

He reiterates that with banks if anything goes wrong in their digital asset offering it will have an impact on their ability to execute and support other innovative lines of business. If regulators come down and find any negative activity it will be impactful. Banks pay specific attention to the framework, implementation, governance, risk parameters.

But Richardson believes “Banks will eventually stop using the service of crypto exchanges to bridge their activities with crypto and will bring these capabilities in house.” That will happen once they operationalize crypto into their business, and gain the expertise on how to run a digital asset business. Richardson notes that “ Banks are building that right now, by integrating crypto exchange offerings into their business, offering a broker all in one solution to go to market and assess the impact it will have on them commercially. Eventually they will bring some of those capabilities or all those capabilities in house.”

“We are seeing banks do the same thing that payment providers have done, moving from crypto remote to crypto inside. “

Already Fireblocks has been working with some banks in the UAE. It is one of the members of Emirates NBD digital assets lab, which according to Richardson has been a focal point for the bank to understand digital assets and the capabilities as well as what can be developed around them.

FireBlock’s team and Emirates NBD are working closely together to explore and understand different use cases. According to Richardson there are significant use cases that can affect corporate and transactional banking, investments banking and the payment side of the business.

FireBlocks offers banks Wallets-as-a-Service, a white-labelled solution to create, manage, and secure MPC wallets at scale. MPC enables multiple parties, each holding their own private data, to evaluate a computation without ever revealing any of the private data held by each party (or any otherwise

Fireblocks also provides Hardware Security Module (HSM) integration through its open interface, allowing users to connect new or existing HSMs from leading providers like Thales and Securosys with the Fireblocks platform.

This HSM support complements Fireblocks’ core Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology and its ability to host key shares across both public and private cloud environments, offering financial institutions a flexible, multi-layered approach to digital asset security. Customers can leverage these integrations for on-premises safekeeping or in cloud-based data centers, enhancing their key management infrastructure with hardware-backed security related secret information).

Fireblocks combines HSMs with its MPC technology, not as a replacement, but to create a more robust, defence-in-depth security system. MPC securely distributes key shares across different systems, while HSMs provide a tamper-resistant hardware anchor for secure key operations

According to Richardson most banks are choosing the HSM option for internal risk considerations. This is because banks have different internal policies around hosting, while crypto native players will either chose Fireblock’s SAS based solution or hosted MPC.

Launch of AED stablecoins will push Banks as well into digital asset domain

The UAE has been at the forefront of AED stablecoin regulation as well as CBDC. It has already passed both legislations and there is one regulated AED stablecoin so far.

Richardson believes that banks will need to integrate the AED CBDC and AED stablecoins as well as look into the issues of interoperability given that not all stablecoin architectures are the same.

“Banks are having conversations in the MENA region on the inclusion of stablecoins and they are very aware of the implications as they are aware of the implications of digital assets technology and are actively testing those capabilities and what makes sense for the banks and how to execute against that and opportunity sets.”

He adds that banks are doing this at a deliberate pace, but in general they are moving.

Banks will face the same risks that crypto native players and will need to pay attention to that.

 “ Digital asset security is a significant issue, for example if you had $100 million worth of gold bars, how much money would you spend to secure that asset, if you consider crypto or Bitcoin as digital gold, and all these assets are sitting on a blockchain, you know not only is it easier to steal and in general the more of an asset online the more valuable it becomes to attack that singular target.”

He adds, “I think eventually banks will act as a hub for both liquidity but for like customer balances in digital assets, it won’t only act as crypto exchange, but people trust their banks to keep their assets safe and secure and to interact with money.”

“They will offer the full stack, and we see this with JP Morgan, BNY Mellon, DBS and this is the trend. In the end banks offer financial services and financial use cases, and digital assets or blockchain is just another medium for that. Security will be the top of mind.”

Blockchain will be critical because the digital assets will sit on the blockchain itself. Adoption of blockchain technology will be critical as will AI.

Already Fireblocks has announced the launch of the Fireblocks Network for Payments to power stablecoin payments across more than 100 countries, including Singapore and Hong Kong. It enabled fintechs, PSPs, and other institutions to build products on its infrastructure, delivering payouts, remittance, merchant settlement, cross-border treasury and orchestrating global payment flows with complete control.

Open, secure and compliant by design, the Fireblocks Network now unites local payment rails, blockchains, and stablecoin systems with on/off-ramp, stablecoin issuers and liquidity providers, on-chain FX, and remittance capabilities for over 60 currencies.

Future of Fireblocks in MENA

 As for the future Richardson notes that Fireblocks will continue to serve clients in the MENA region. They have recently partnered FeedX and BurjX as well as MultiBank and others. He adds that new customers are coming into the space.

 “In the UAE we are covering 150 plus accounts.” This is because the UAE is a jurisdiction that has created a framework for digital assets that is very clear and comprehensive. Because of this Richardson sees an acceleration in the UAE and Fireblocks is present to offer the technical stack that helps businesses execute correctly not only regionally but globally from the UAE.

The opportunities are growing as other industries and players enter the digital asset and blockchain space. Fireblock’s being focused on securing blockchains as information goes on chain. Fireblock will continue to ask the question where the value exists for them and their clients.

Revolut digital banking and crypto service soon to be available in UAE

Revolut digital banking and crypto service soon to be available in UAE

Revolut, the global digital bank offered through a financial application, which has 60 million customers worldwide has received an in principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE to offer stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services (Category II) licenses, at the same time as it hires Reem Khayat, Product Marketing Head, who will be leading product marketing for crypto.

A Stored Value Facilities (SVF) License from the UAE Central Bank (CBUAE) authorizes an entity to operate a system where customers pay money or transfer value to the issuer in exchange for stored value that can be used to make payments for goods and services. This license regulates businesses that offer digital wallets, prepaid cards, and similar electronic payment systems to ensure financial stability and consumer protection within the UAE, while a A retail payment services (RPS) license authorizes a company to operate as a Payment Service Provider (PSP) in the UAE, offering services like payment aggregation and merchant acquiring to businesses. This license enables approved PSPs to provide a full range of omnichannel payment solutions to merchants, facilitating various payment methods such as domestic fund transfers and mobile wallets.

This comes months after Revolut opened an office in the UAE and after hiring its CEO Ambareen Musa the previous founder of Souqalmal.

Ambareen Musa, CEO of GCC at Revolut, noted, “Receiving these in-principle approvals from the Central Bank of the UAE is a pivotal step for Revolut in the region. Our goal is to empower individuals here with cutting-edge financial tools that offer transparency, flexibility, and control, addressing key pain points in the current financial landscape. We are committed to setting a new standard for financial services worldwide, and eagerly anticipate bringing Revolut to the dynamic UAE market.”

Revolut also offers users crypto services including trading, transferring and others. It offers 210+ carefully vetted tokens. All tokens as per the website pass stringent checks before being listed. Revolut crypto allows users to move BTC, ETH, USDT and 30+ other tokens between their wallets.

Revolut once it enters into the UAE, will be competing with not only digital banks such as Zand, Liv Bank, and others but also traditional banks such as Emirates NBD, Rak Bank.

Just today, UAE digital bank Zand launched ZandPay, an advanced point-of-sale (POS) solution developed in collaboration with Transguard Group and supported by Arab Financial Services. ZandPay combines speed, security, and flexibility, supporting a wide range of payment methods including debit and credit cards, contactless options, mobile wallets, and international transactions across multiple currencies.

UAE Changer and PayFlex to offer crypto to fiat settlement gateways

UAE Changer and PayFlex to offer crypto to fiat settlement gateways

UAE based Changer.ae, a leading secure digital asset service provider licensed in ADGM, and PayFlex.ae, a pioneering crypto technology service provider, signed an MOU ( Memorandum of Understanding) to simplify and accelerate the adoption of crypto in everyday use cases across the UAE and further. The solutions will be offered to both businesses and consumers alike.

Wang Hao, CFA, Senior Executive office of UAE regulated Changer.ae noted, “Today marks a pivotal milestone in advancing the UAE’s digital financial ecosystem. Our collaboration with PayFlex is a natural evolution of the UAE’s growing digital asset infrastructure, combining our secure custody and conversion services with PayFlex’s innovative point-of-sale crypto settlement technology. Together, we are creating a future where digital and traditional finance seamlessly coexist.”

Previously Changer became a partner with Al Maryah Community Bank ( MBank) allowing Changer to offer UAE dirham escrow services and compliant crypto-fiat conversions. Changer also leverages AE Coin, the country’s first fully regulated UAE dirham-backed stablecoin, supporting 1:1 dirham-pegged transactions and enabling greater financial inclusion.

Shadi Ahmad., Chairman of PayFlex, emphasized, “This partnership is more than strategic, it is transformative. By merging Changer’s exchange capabilities with PayFlex’s merchant-ready solutions, and with the trust of Mbank, we are building the region’s most advanced crypto-to-fiat settlement gateway. Our goal is to make digital currencies usable in everyday life — from hotels, real estate, restaurants, and beyond.”

UAE Matrix Wings using PayFlex crypto settlement

UAE Matrix Wings Group is already making use of the solution. The are using PayFlex crypto settlement technology to accept digital assets.

According to Najet ben Kaddour, Chief Executive Officer of Matrix Wings Group LLC, it provided them with a secure and compliant foundation to confidently accept digital assets. She added, “By eliminating volatility and fraud risks, we were able to attract high-value crypto spenders—resulting in a 15 per cent increase in revenue in just the first quarter. PayFlex has truly turned uncertainty into opportunity.”

Ihab Tannish, Chief Executive Officer of ITS Real Estate Brokerage LLC also commented about his experience with PayFlex stating: “With Payflex, we didn’t just integrate cryptocurrency technology, we unlocked an entirely new revenue stream. Their seamless settlement into local currency allowed us to safely tap into the spending power of the crypto economy.”

The result was a 17 per cent increase in average order value from crypto users and significantly expanded market reach.

The Africa Hedera Hackathon adds $1 million to pool prize making total $2 million

The Africa Hedera Hackathon adds $1 million to pool prize making total $2 million

United Gulf Financial Services (UGFS North Africa), a leading venture capital firm offering innovative companies and startups with financial support and mentoring services, has partnered with The Hashgraph Association, a Swiss non-profit organization driving global adoption of Hedera-powered solutions by funding innovation, training, certification, and venture building programs, and Exponential Science Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation accelerating responsible tech adoption, via research, education, and innovation activities, for Hedera Africa Hackathon 2025, the biggest hackathon in Africa aimed at enabling the next generation of Web developers and empower economic inclusion in Africa with a digital future for all.

UGFS North Africa is allocating $1 million from its managed Funds and funding partners to invest in winning startups and projects who have participated in the Hedera Africa Hackathon. The prize pool is now $2 million.

The Hedera Africa Hackathon is the biggest Web3 Hackathon initiative combining online participation with onsite events in over 20 African cities. The goal is to attract over 10,000 participants across more than 15 countries on the African continent.

Developers, students, and entrepreneurs in Africa and globally will collaborate to build decentralized solutions on Hedera across industries such as Finance, Healthcare, Telecoms, Sustainability, Agriculture, and Manufacturing, while leveraging the convergence of other deep technologies such as AI, IoT, Robotics, and Quantum Computing.

Mohamed Salah Frad, Managing Director, UGFS (North Africa) stated, “We are very pleased to be participating in the Hedera Africa Hackathon as this is core to our strategy which is to invest and help grow innovation across Africa. We trust that the hackathon will bring talented teams and projects to the areas of AI, Greentech, Biotech and more. Working with partners such as the Hashgraph Association and Exponential Science Foundation is essential as we believe collaboration is key.”

The hackathon went live on August 1st, 2025, and will continue up to September 30th, 2025. The hackathon tasks applicants to develop blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based, scalable solutions tailored to the continent’s most urgent challenges and needs. All solutions will be built on the Hedera network – the world’s most energy-efficient and cost-effective DLT, which offers cost predictability, the highest levels of security, and the ability to support reliable, scalable, and enterprise-grade applications.

Kamal Youssefi, President of The Hashgraph Association, explained, “We are proud to have among our partners for the hackathon strong players from various industries, such as UDFS, Orange Africa and Middle East, Exponential Science and others. Our efforts to equip developers and entrepreneurs with Web3 skills using Hedera platform, and funding to support digitization in Africa, cannot be done solo, but through a consorted effort such as this one. Increasing the pool prize from $1 million to $2 million will attract more innovative developers and projects and help us to digitize the African continent.”

Paolo Tasca, Executive Chairman of Exponential Science Foundation, added, “Exponential Science has partnered with the Hedera Africa Hackathon because we believe in the strong potential within the continent for the development of emerging technologies. A larger pool prize will encourage more developers, projects, and entrepreneurs to join the initiative to develop their ideas into ventures that will benefit the region.”

The Hedera Africa Hackathon 2025 is operated and supported by a strong network of partners, under the experienced leadership of DAR Blockchain, a Tunisian-based Web3 Hub that has been operating in the Web3 industry since 2017. DAR Blockchain plays a significant role in magnifying the impact of this hackathon initiative across the continent and builds on THA’s previous efforts to support blockchain innovation in Africa.

Prior to that Orange joined the Hedera Africa Hackathon offering their digital centers.

Qatar Financial Center develops Blockchain digital receipt system on Hedera

Qatar Financial Center develops Blockchain digital receipt system on Hedera

The Qatar Financial Center (QFC), has launched a proof of concept (POC) through its Digital Asset Lab introducing a Hedera Blockchain based Digital Receipt System ( DRS) to improve transparency, efficiency and regulatory compliance in Shariah compliant asset backed finance.

As per the press release, this initiative marks a significant step forward in applying blockchain technology to Islamic finance. The new system will operate on HashSphere, a private, permissioned distributed ledger built on Hedera technology and deployed via Google Cloud through QFC’s Digital Asset Lab.

In 2024, Blade Labs a financial technology that tokenizes financial productions and services secured a fintech license at Qatar Financial Center, and admittance to the Digital Asset Lab, as it partnered with The Hashgraph Association.

The newly announced project is a joint effort between QFC Digital Asset Lab which orchestrates the initiative with infrastructure and regulatory oversight, Hashgraph which delivers and operates the underlying blockchain infrastructure, ensuring secure and scalable network performance and Blade Labs who is leading the development of the DRS, including smart contracts and user interfaces tailored to Islamic finance use cases.

Additionally AlRayan Bank will be validating the system’s functionality, offering domain-specific insights and exploring commercialization pathways while Google Cloud is providing the enterprise-grade infrastructure for deployment.


Yousuf Mohamed Al-Jaida, CEO of QFC, said, “At QFC, we are committed to building a strong digital asset ecosystem that supports innovation and real-world applications. Through our Digital Assets Lab, we’re proud to facilitate this pilot as a step forward in exploring how blockchain can bring greater efficiency and scalability to Shariah-compliant financial products. This initiative reflects our continued support for tokenization, financial innovation, and collaboration aligned with the Third Financial Sector Strategic Plan.

Omar Al Emadi, Acting GCEO of AlRayan Bank, added, “Innovation is a cornerstone of Islamic finance, and this initiative reflects AlRayan Bank’s commitment to advancing Shariah-compliant financial solutions that meet the evolving needs of the market. Through our participation in this proof of concept, we reaffirm our role in validating the system’s functionality and laying the groundwork for scalable, practical applications that can strengthen the future of Islamic finance while reinforcing Qatar’s position as a regional hub for financial innovation.”

While Sami Mian, CEO of Blade Labs, explained, “The Digital Receipt System POC will showcase that blockchain, smart contracts, and global identity standards can address the operational bottlenecks that currently prevent Islamic finance institutions from scaling certain Shariah-compliant asset-backed products. By providing a controlled environment to measure actual business outcomes, institutions can evaluate whether this technology approach solves problems worth solving before making larger commitments.”

Eric Piscini, CEO of Hashgraph, emphasized, “HashSphere is built to deliver the trust, performance, and regulatory confidence that today’s financial systems demand. Backed by the scalability and security of Hedera’s enterprise-grade technology, this collaboration highlights how the right infrastructure can unlock new possibilities in both Islamic finance and broader financial innovation.”

In 2024, The Hashgraph Association, a partner with Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Digital assets Lab announced on LinkedIn, that within the next 12 months it would be working together with stakeholders to explore implementing five innovative use cases, in the areas of equity tokenization, Sukuk Islamic Bonds tokenization, real estate tokenization, sustainability ESG Carbon credits, as well as consumer engagement and loyalty programs. This is part of the partnership that was signed with QFC for a $50 million Digital Assets Venture Studio to develop the Web3 and DLT innovation ecosystem in Qatar.

26 AI startups accepted in Abu Dhabi Hub71 17th cohort

26 AI startups accepted in Abu Dhabi Hub71 17th cohort

Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, has onboarded 26 high-growth AI startups to its 17th Cohort. The startups raised over $223 million the largest funding total of any Hub71 cohort to date.

Over eighty per cent of startups selected are developing AI-driven solutions to address critical challenges across priority sectors, including HealthTech, FinTech and ClimateTech, contributing to the diversification of Abu Dhabi’s economy. Their entry into Abu Dhabi reflects the emirate’s growing strategic relevance in the global AI landscape, amplified by the launch of Hub71+ AI, the specialist ecosystem backed by partners including AI71, Core42, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google for Startups, designed to catalyse cross-sector AI breakthroughs.

Cohort 17 was selected from over 2,000 global applications, with startups from 12 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, France, Canada, Egypt and India. 74% are headquartered outside the UAE. The cohort is primarily composed of seed-stage startups, aligning with Hub71’s focus on empowering early-stage startups to grow into resilient international businesses.

Ahmad Ali Alwan, CEO of Hub71, said: “The startups joining Cohort 17 reflect the ambition and calibre of founders we are welcoming into our community. Backed by strong funding and building technologies with broad market applications, they are pursuing growth globally. Their decision to build from Abu Dhabi highlights the strength of our ecosystem and its position as a global launchpad for innovation.”

Among the notable startups joining Hub71 is Harmonic Discovery, a US BioTech company applying AI to design precision therapies for hard-to-treat diseases like sickle cell disease. The company has raised $8.5 million (AED 31.2 million) in funding. Also joining Hub71 is Planys Technologies from India, which develops autonomous underwater robots and smart sensors for diver-free inspection, with $7.2 million (AED 26.4 million) in funding.

Six startups in Cohort 17 are scaling solutions to address environmental challenges, leveraging the Hub71+ ClimateTech ecosystem to accelerate their growth and impact. Among them is SunGreenH2, a Singapore-based company building high-efficiency electrolysers to produce green hydrogen for industrial, energy and mobility use, backed by $6.6 million (AED 24.2 million) in funding. Eight startups will develop solutions in blockchain and Web3 technologies and will benefit from the Hub71+ Digital Assets ecosystem, including Resolv Labs, a UAE-based crypto investment platform that has raised $12.5 million (AED 46 million).

Cohort 17 startups will join Hub71’s Access programme, benefitting from a comprehensive support package that includes up to AED 500,000 in in-kind and cash incentives, and the opportunity for top-performing startups to receive up to AED 1 million in follow-on support after completing one year at Hub71. Beyond capital, startups gain access to the Hub71 network and Abu Dhabi market, talent pool, and investor networks, positioning them to take advantage of commercial opportunities and scale quickly from the UAE capital.

The startups include!

Banxx is one app to manage your entire financial life— connecting banking and AI to help you plan, optimise, and manage your financial life with ease.
eVoost AI is the intelligence layer for modern real estate, a complete go-to-market engine that informs every off-plan development decision from planning to pricing.
Harmonic Discovery uses AI to design precision therapies for hard-to-treat diseases, with a lead programme targeting Sickle Cell Disease.
HealthStay.io is an advanced AI software that helps medical providers qualify, convert, and manage international patients through automated workflows and streamlined operations.
Monit provides AI-powered IoT solutions for industrial asset monitoring, worker safety and operational efficiency.
Orbii is a credit intelligence platform enabling lenders to launch and scale SME lending products using AI-based underwriting to real-time disbursement and collections.
PayTic automates compliance and back-office payment operations — including reconciliation, dispute management, and regulatory reporting — enabling banks and FinTech’s to reduce costs, enhance efficiency, and scale with confidence.
Planys is revolutionising critical infrastructure structure inspection through innovations in marine robotics, advanced underwater NDT, and AI-driven analytics. Their un-manned solutions enable online inspections that are safer and help asset managers improve efficiency and avoid shutdowns.
Professional.me is a talent intelligence system powered by micro-LLMs tailored to each employer and professional that drives smarter decisions across hiring, upskilling, and workforce planning.
Reno simplifies renovations by bringing contractor selection, project management, and financing into one easy-to-use platform.
Ukama empower enterprises and communities to build their own cellular networks and bring internet access to remote communities.
Wrtn Technologies is a leading consumer AI provider with its AI companion and AI character chat apps, while empowering businesses to boost productivity through AI agents in its B2B offerings.
ZenAdmin.ai is a comprehensive IT platform that helps companies of all sizes equip, manage, and support their teams anywhere in the world. We handle the entire IT hardware lifecycle, security, and support—ensuring employees have secure access to the tools they need to do their best work, without disruption.
Lypid develops a patented plant-based fat that replicates the taste and texture of animal fat, ideal for dairy and baked goods, but without the cholesterol and with less saturated fat.
Mitico provides an affordable, simple and safe carbon capture technology, helping industrial emitters cut their carbon emissions by over 95%.
P1 Energy’s modular synthetic fuel platform, a turnkey “refinery-in-a-box”, converts renewable methanol into drop-in fuels usable in today’s engines without modification.
Sager is an AI-powered digital twin platform that uses drone and geospatial data to monitor assets and optimise operations in real time.
SNAPP provides compact aquatic drones for ocean habitats, scalable as a swarm, and assisted with AI monitoring.
SolarisKit designs and manufactures flat-packed solar thermal collectors in the UAE, offering an easy-to-ship, quick-install, low-maintenance solution that delivers affordable clean heat for hot climates.
Hearst is a cryptocurrency mining service focused on sustainability and institutional-grade reliability.
HIFI is a U.S based financial technology company for programmable money infrastructure. They allow businesses and institutions to integrate stablecoins directly into their workflows to move money across the world.
MANSA is the stablecoin-powered infrastructure enabling payment providers to deliver instant global settlement
Merkle Science, an AI-powered blockchain analytics leader, helps governments, banks, and crypto firms detect illicit activity. Backed by $27M from top investors, it delivers compliance, investigations and real-time risk intelligence.
Plume is the leading RWAfi chain focused on making it easy to access the real-world chain. With over $400M+ in RWA TVL, 200+ projects building on Plume, and as #1 chain by RWA holders, Plume is the premier place for RWAs to build, launch, and grow. Plume has raised $30M+ from leading investors like Haun Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Apollo Global, YZi Labs, Brevan Howard, and more.
Predicate powers the regulated rails for on chain financial products. We abstract policy logic and enforcement from smart contracts, making it easy for organisations to meet their business and compliance requirements.
Resolv is an investment infrastructure providing access to the broad range of crypto-sourced yields in a stablecoin format.

Hub 71 Blockchain startup 1Money secures licenses in USA and Bermuda

Hub 71 Blockchain startup 1Money secures licenses in USA and Bermuda

1Money Co., an Abu Dhabi Hub 71 startup, and the company behind the world’s first Layer 1 protocol purpose-built for Web3 payments, which has raised $20 million has secured a comprehensive suite of financial licenses across multiple jurisdictions, including 34 Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs) in the United States and an F Class Digital Asset Business license from the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

The licenses permit the company to now launch global “stablecoin orchestration services” through traditional financial institutions and providing a compliant bridge between its next-generation blockchain (the 1Money Network) and the traditional financial system.


1Money can now deliver a full-stack stablecoin infrastructure offering, including deploying its Layer 1 protocol through a separate entity, stablecoin orchestration services, and a comprehensive suite of compliant fiat solutions. The company’s regulated footprint, covering the majority of U.S. markets and offering fully regulated global operations out of Bermuda, empowers partners and enterprises to build, scale, and launch stablecoin-based products that can seamlessly move money between digital currencies and fiat.


By combining its regulated and licensed money services business with its 1Money Network protocol, 1Money seeks to uniquely provide a full suite of services to stablecoin and Real World Asset (RWA) issuers, allowing them to run on the 1Money Network, connect their digital assets to the traditional banking system, and provide compliant distribution channels for offering their assets to end users globally.


“Securing 34 U.S. MTLs and the Bermuda BMA Class F license is the linchpin of our commitment to providing secure, compliant, and scalable stablecoin solutions to businesses worldwide,” said Brian Shroder, Co-Founder and CEO, 1Money. “These milestones enable us to orchestrate stablecoin flows across both traditional and emerging blockchain infrastructure, bringing a new level of interoperability, trust, and compliance to the digital payments landscape.”


1Money can now offer multi-currency fiat virtual accounts, fiat deposit and withdrawal (on/off ramps), global fiat pay-in and pay-out
Digital Asset Custody, stablecoin buying, selling, and exchange, stablecoin payments and remittances and Foreign Exchange (FX).


“Our team has worked diligently to build a robust legal and compliance framework that meets the stringent requirements of regulators in the U.S. and Bermuda. This achievement reflects our commitment to globally align with esteemed regulatory regimes,” said Christopher Lalan, Chief Legal Officer, 1 Money. He added, “The U.S. MTLs and the Bermuda Class F license give partners confidence that 1Money can support them at scale with both compliant operations and advanced technology solutions.”

“Enterprises need more than technology—they need a regulated partner they can depend on,” said Kristen Hecht, Chief Compliance Officer. “We are proud to combine the highest global standards of compliance with the innovation of our next-generation stablecoin infrastructure.”
The 1Money group of companies now operate a robust regulatory foundation designed to foster mainstream adoption and unlock a new wave of innovation for global payments while also offering the 1Money Network protocol, engineered to be the fastest, cheapest, and most compliant Layer 1 for Web3 payments.

Abu Dhabi Finance Week puts on the table AI, Quantum computing and Blockchain

Abu Dhabi Finance Week puts on the table AI, Quantum computing and Blockchain

Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) 2025, the region’s biggest financial gathering, has not only announced that the topics that will be examined will include AI, quantum computing and blockchain as they impact the future of finance, but also its first wave of speakers who include H.E. Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman of ADDED and ADGM, H.R.H. Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, Chairman of KBW Ventures, Ray Dalio, Founder & CIO Mentor of Bridgewater and Clare Woodman, CEO International at Morgan Stanley. They will be joined by new speakers such as Harvey Schwartz, CEO of Carlyle; Marc Randolph, Co-Founder of Netflix; Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek; Jenny Johnson, President & CEO of Franklin Templeton; Jacques Chappuis, CEO of PGIM; and Mohamed Al Mehairi, CEO of Emirates Investment Authority, Dmitry Balyasny, Managing Partner and CIO of Balyasny Asset Management and Stephen Dainton, President of Barclays.

Hosted by ADGM, the international financial center of Abu Dhabi, ADFW 2025 will gather leading thinkers, investors, and policy leaders in the UAE capital from 8th December to 11th December 2025 for five flagship events.

More than 300 international leaders of firms representing over USD 60 trillion in assets are already confirmed to speak at this year’s edition, which will examine how new technologies are impacting the future of finance. This number is expected to increase as more speakers are confirmed, and already surpasses ADFW 2024, which gathered global firms worth USD 42.5 trillion in AUM.

Commenting on ADFW’s 2025 edition, His Excellency Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman of ADGM, said, “100 days to ADFW and an outstanding lineup of world-class speakers representing trillions of dollars are already confirmed. This highlights how the event has become a dynamic platform where capital connects and where key issues impacting the future of finance will be discussed at the highest level. ADFW’s status as one of the world’s top financial gatherings underscores Abu Dhabi’s prominence as a hub for finance, innovation, and opportunities. We look forward to welcoming the global financial community for another exceptional week in the Capital of Capital.”

This year’s strategic theme, ‘Engineering the Capital Network’, reflects how emerging technologies, especially AI and quantum computing, are reshaping modern finance. It also captures the shifting dynamics of global capital flows, with Abu Dhabi at the centre of this new financial gravity. Once primarily a capital exporter, the emirate is now a dynamic hub for two-way capital flows, enabled by leading institutions and ADGM’s world-class international financial centre.

The opening ceremony for ADFW will take place on 8th December 2025, and a Gala Dinner will round off the first day of the conference. During the four days of the event, delegates will be able to participate in returning key events such as Abu Dhabi Economic Forum (ADEF), Asset Abu Dhabi, Fintech Abu Dhabi, RESOLVE and Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum (ADSFF).

Attendees will also be able to join sessions at other events such as the Global Financial Regulators Summit, the Greenwich Economic Forum, the UBS Investor Forum, the International Financial Office Congress, Blockchain Abu Dhabi, the Risk 4.0 Forum, the DLT Foundation Forum and the Islamic Finance Summit. This year’s ADFW will also include several new forums, such as ADFW’s inaugural energy summit – New Energy Finance held in association with CNBC International, Googles Finance & Technology Summit (GtFT), the Private Credit Summit in partnership with AIMA (Alternative Investment Management Association), the Infrastructure Summit organised with Mubadala, the Treasury & CFO Summit, GCFC Roundtable and a Private Wealth Roundtable.

Ripple makes RLUSD stablecoin available in Africa

Ripple makes RLUSD stablecoin available in Africa

Ripple, digital asset infrastructure provider, has made its USD-backed stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) available to institutions in Africa through three new partnerships with Chipper Cash, VALR and Yellow Card.

Since its launch in late 2024, RLUSD has experienced strong global adoption, surpassing $700 million in market capitalization, underlining demand for a compliance-first USD-backed stablecoin.

Jack McDonald, SVP of Stablecoins at Ripple noted that RLUSD is being used by enterprises for payments to tokenization of collateral in both crypto and traditional markets. He expressed excitement on distributing in Africa through local partners. He added, “We also recently enabled RLUSD in Ripple Payments, extending the breadth of stablecoins available in our cross-border payments solution to better serve our customers in Africa and worldwide.”

“After establishing our partnership with Ripple earlier this year to support faster, cheaper, more efficient cross-border payments into Africa, we were keen to make RLUSD available to our clients as soon as possible,” said Ham Serunjogi, Co-Founder & CEO at Chipper Cash. “RLUSD is uniquely positioned to drive institutional use of blockchain technology across Africa and broader global markets, including through cross-border payments.”

“As the largest crypto exchange in Africa, VALR is committed to providing our customers with access to compliant and high-quality digital assets,” said Farzam Ehsani, Co-Founder and CEO of VALR. “The listing of RLUSD reflects our broader strategy to support trusted stablecoin options that serve the evolving needs of both institutional and retail clients seeking a reliable digital dollar for a growing range of use cases.”

“This listing reinforces our commitment to providing the most reliable and compliant payment infrastructure across Africa and the emerging markets,” said Chris Maurice, CEO and Co-Founder at Yellow Card. “Our customers demand access to stable digital assets that are useful for secure cross-border payments and treasury management. Offering a regulatory-compliant stablecoin like RLUSD is a natural step in our mission to deliver trusted, enterprise-grade solutions.”

RLUSD is ideal for a number of enterprise financial use cases including facilitating instant settlement of cross-border payments; accessing liquidity for remittance and treasury operations; integrating with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols; reliably bridging between fiat currencies and the crypto ecosystem.

Ripple continues to work with top-tier partners around the world to make RLUSD globally available. In addition to the three new African partners, RLUSD is also available through Bitso, Bitstamp, Bullish, CoinMENA, Independent Reserve, Gemini, Kraken, Mercado Bitcoin, and Uphold ensuring access and availability across most of the world.

Jordan leads in global crypto adoption compared to modest MENA growth of 33 percent

Jordan leads in global crypto adoption compared to modest MENA growth of 33 percent

The excerpt of the sixth annual Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index, which looks at countries on both on and off chain data for crypto, while the Arab countries did not make it to top 20 of the list, Jordan did make top 4 out of top 10 global adoption by country when taking into it the population. MENA saw a modest 33% growth, suggesting a slower pace of adoption relative to other emerging markets, though total volume still exceeded half a trillion dollars.

In Chainalysis 2024 Geography of Cryptocurrency report, the numbers were different it noted that MENA was the seventh largest crypto market globally in 2024 with the biggest two crypto countries being Turkey and Morocco. In addition, it noted that the fastest growing crypto countries are Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Saudi Arabia remains the fastest-growing crypto economy in the MENA region, growing by 154% year-over-year,

In each year’s report, Chainalysis looks at on- and off-chain data to determine which countries are leading the world in grassroots crypto adoption. While the Chainalysis index traditionally focused on total activity adjusted for GDP per capita, an approach that worked best when crypto was niche and concentrated among high-volume users, as adoption increased the new index was adjusted for population.

As per Chainalysis, countries in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, top the list, reflecting high levels of crypto activity relative to the size of their populations. The 4th on the list is Jordan.

Moreover no Arab country made it to top 20 global list, interestingly Nigeria was dropped from number 2 position replaced by USA, with of course India as always in the lead. Nigeria now holds number 6 position.

The fastest growing region was APAC, with a 69% year on year increase in value received. Total crypto transaction volume in APAC grew from $1.4 trillion to $2.36 trillion, driven by robust engagement across major markets like India, Vietnam, and Pakistan.

Close behind, Latin America’s crypto adoption grew by 63%, reflecting rising adoption across both retail and institutional segments. In comparison, Sub-Saharan Africa’s adoption grew by 52%, indicating the region’s continued reliance on crypto for remittances and everyday payments.

North America and Europe continued to dominate in absolute terms, receiving over $2.2 trillion and $2.6 trillion, respectively, in the past year. North America’s 49% growth reflects a year of renewed institutional interest, bolstered by the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs and increased regulatory clarity. Europe’s 42% gain, while lower than other regions, still represents a substantial increase, given its already high base, highlighting the continent’s sustained institutional activity and expanding user base.

Fiat on ramping

In Chainalysis’s 2025 Global Adoption Index when assessing fiat on ramp behaviour between July 2024 and June 2025 that found that Bitcoin leads by a wide margin, accounting for over $4.6 trillion in fiat inflows during the period. That’s more than double the next-highest category, Layer 1 tokens (excluding BTC and ETH), which saw roughly $3.8 trillion in volume.

Stablecoins ranked third at $1.3 trillion, while altcoins followed at approximately $540 billion. Other categories, including low-liquidity tokens, meme coins, and DeFi, each received less than $300 billion in fiat inflows.