UAE ASK Group and Keeta Blockchain to tokenize GCC commodities
Keeta, a Layer 1 blockchain company unifying cross-network payments and asset transfers with built-in compliance and 400-millisecond settlement, and UAE investment group, ASK Group, led by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Sultan bin Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, have launched a joint venture aimed to tokenize physical GCC commodities onto a public exchange accessible to global investors.
As per the announcement, commodities in the GCC such as oil, gold, silver, copper and other industrial metals can now be offered as global investment assets to a broader investor base through a Keeta Blockchain powered public exchange where Gulf commodities are tokenized backed one to one by physical assets held in audited physical custody, with on chain proof of reserves verifiable in real time.
The result is direct fractional ownership of physical Gulf commodities, available to investors globally, settling in under a second, around the clock. A retail investor in Tokyo, an institutional fund in London, or a family office in Singapore will have the same direct access to a barrel of Gulf crude or an ounce of UAE-held gold as the largest commodity trading houses have historically enjoyed, with complete transparency over what they own and where it is held.
“As a global financial center, the UAE is determined to lead the world as we enter this new era,” said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Sultan bin Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “This partnership is a long-term commitment to building the infrastructure that will define how trillions of dollars in real-world assets move.”
The project is set to be launched in 2027 and will also include a blockchain settlement network, a framework in which licensed financial institutions connect their existing infrastructure to Keeta’s network and become registered settlement participants—cross-border value transfer that previously required multiple intermediaries and significant time can settle in under 400 milliseconds.
Eric Schmidt, the former Chief Executive of Google and one of the most closely watched technology investors of his generation, is a major investor in Keeta. The company’s network was tested in collaboration with Google’s Spanner engineering team, achieving 11.2 million transactions per second with 400-millisecond settlement finality. This verified achievement has drawn significant attention from institutional investors and financial technology firms evaluating next-generation settlement infrastructure globally.
“Together we are going to take assets and payment flows that have operated the same way for decades and put them on rails built for the next century,” said Ty Schenk, Founder and Chief Executive of Keeta.
As a layer 1 Blockchain, Keeta offers quick transaction times, and support no only human initiated transactions but also those of AI agents. It also support a compliance architecture which allows issuers of tokenized assets to embed regulatory conditions—including transfer restrictions, investor accreditation requirements, and jurisdictional controls—directly into the token at the point of creation.
In addition, Keeta’s digital identity framework verifies participants once and carries those credentials across every product and market on the network, removing the repeated onboarding processes that add cost and friction to financial platforms operating at scale. For remittance users sending money regularly across the same corridor, this means a single verified identity that works across every transaction, every time.
ASK Group, led by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Sultan bin Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and active across infrastructure, fintech, blockchain, real estate, and sports, holds exclusive rights to facilitate and execute Keeta’s presence across the UAE, MEA, and India. The combination of Keeta’s technical infrastructure and ASK Group’s sovereign-level institutional relationships creates a partnership whose reach extends well beyond a commercial arrangement between two companies.
Future phases of the partnership will expand across additional remittance corridors, commodity categories, and GCC markets, with the foundation built in the UAE serving as the operational and regulatory blueprint for the region’s broader engagement with next-generation financial infrastructure.
