In Al Arabiya interview Eric Trump and Dar Global CEO discuss tokenization of real estate
Saudi Arabian Dar Global (LSE:DAR) part of Dar Global PLC, CEO Ziad Chaar, and Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization and son of US President Donald Trump in an interview with Al Arabiya English discussed their new development projects, as well as their views on tokenization and crypto not only in real estate but in everything.
Dar Global, the local partner for Trump Development in the MENA region, is viewed by Eric Trump as part of the team, and this team is not only working on projects in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Maldives, but elsewhere, and they are bringing with it the tokenization at development level, which Ziad El Chaar sees as a first.
According to El Chaar, the situation in KSA is perfect for their projects, given that this month after many years of waiting, KSA opened up its capital markets for international investment, as well as its real estate market. He notes, “When you bring to the market an international big brand like Trump Brand, it not only helps to market these properties to the globe, but consequently real estate developers will move to become part of the FDI ( Foreign Direct Investment) of that country, we plan to bring 125 nationalities who already deal with us in other countries into Saudi Arabia where they can become part of the integral evolution of foreign investment in the country.”
Dar Global and Trump Group will be delivering both Trump Towers in Jeddah as well as in Riyadh with a combined value of $10 billion by 2030. The projects include the Trump National Golf Course and Trump International Hotel in Riyadh’s Diriyah, a massive development project on the Saudi capital’s western edge.
Trump and Dar Global big on tokenization and crypto payments
In terms of real estate tokenization, both Eric Trump and Chaar agree that this is the future and that they are embarking on this innovative journey. Chaar states that working with Trump Organization means they are continuously breaking the paradigms, and starting something that works rather than try what has never worked.
He explains, ” Alot of institutions have been toying with tokenization by tokenizing assets, when we had this discussion we realized that tokenization of assets doesn’t work because, it brings small return. So we came up with the idea of tokenizing at level of development itself, involving investors in this virtual crypto world in the development of hotels, where they can earn IIR Annual rate of return, much more attractive than instead of tokenizing apartments and getting 1.5% per annum, tokenizing at development level, absolute first.”
Already both entities in November 2025, had announced that Trump hotel in Maldives would include tokenization at development level. Trump Organization are set to tokenize the hotel development for Trump International Hotel Maldives project using blockchain technology. The initiative tokenizes the development phase itself, offering investors the opportunity to participate in a high-growth, premium real estate project from inception.
Eric Trump also believes that tokenization will be at the heart of everything whether art, Hollywood, oil. gas, commodities. He adds, ” The way financial money moves around will be very very different, you we wont have SWIFT blockchain in five years time, there is nothing that blockchain cant do better, faster cheaper, more transparently. Bitcoin has offered the greatest return, 70% per annum over the last 10 years.
He also believes stablecoins is engrained in people. He states, ” Real estate will be tokenized, we are working on this in a very big way. The way real estate is purchased as well, cryptocurrency is here to stay, it is where the internet was in 1998, that is how much growth there is left in it.
He sees crypto exploding in the USA, which is leading and the Middle East is right behind there. ” The amount of growth in crypto and blockchain based projects is incredible.”
He believes that blockchain can solve numerous problems in the real estate sector. ” Why cant title deeds all be created on the blockchain, instead of some antiquated office some where. Crypto could be used to pay for property, and brokers. There are alot of things that can be simplified and enhanced for real estate and we plan to exploit alot of those things.”
Already, Deus X Pay, a licensed institutional stablecoin payment solution in Lithuania, is enabling crypto payments for property purchases at the new Trump Tower Dubai, the first Trump International Hotel to be built in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia is already embarking on the tokenization of its real estate registry
Hearing Trump talk about registring title deeds on the blockchain, brings to mind the latest announcement by The Saudi Arabian Real Estate Registry (RER), which is under the supervision of KSA’s Real Estate General Authority (REGA), who recently launched a nationwide property tokenization infrastructure that offers digital ownership transfer built on a blockchain infrastructure that would include real estate registration, fractionalization and marketplace integration.
SettleMint, an enterprise asset tokenization platform, has already deployed the blockchain enabled platform which will act as a technological backbone for next-generation property marketplace. The platform will integrate blockchain based title management, automated valuation models (AVMs), escrow linked payment verification, and fractional ownership capabilities which will open up the property investment and financing market to more players in a transparent, and secure way.
