As global regulators continue to debate how to govern digital assets, the UAE is accelerating in the opposite direction, embedding blockchain into its financial and public infrastructure at scale.

A new flagship report released by The Blockchain Center Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with Binance, argues that the country has moved beyond experimentation and into large-scale, regulated deployment across finance, governance, and market infrastructure. The research positions the UAE as a global benchmark for institutional blockchain adoption.

According to the report, this shift has been enabled by the country’s layered regulatory framework, which has created clarity for financial institutions, technology providers, and global platforms operating within supervised environments. Blockchain is now being integrated into payments, tokenization, custody, and settlement systems, transitioning from pilot projects to production-grade infrastructure.

Among the live deployments cited are UAE Pass, the national digital identity platform serving 11 million users and recording more than 2.5 billion authentications; multiple DFSA- and FSRA-approved stablecoins already in circulation; and a central bank digital currency pilot that has executed its first transactions. Real-world asset tokenization initiatives are also underway, including plans to tokenize $4 billion in real estate assets.

These initiatives operate within a high-volume financial ecosystem. Domestic payment systems processed more than $5.45 trillion in transfers in the first ten months of 2025, while cross-border flows supported by the UAE economy exceed $40 billion annually. The report notes that 95% of residents send international remittances at least once per year, reinforcing demand for efficient digital infrastructure.

“The UAE has created an environment where regulators, financial institutions, and technology providers can work together to deploy blockchain in a controlled and meaningful way,” said Abdulla Al Dhaheri, CEO of The Blockchain Center Abu Dhabi.