Why ADI Chain Is Poised to Become MENA’s First Institutional-Grade L2 for Stablecoins & RWA

A new blockchain is carving out a niche where traditional finance meets digital assets in one of the world's most dynamic regions.

The Institutional On-Ramp

Forget the speculative frenzy. The real money—the kind managed by sovereign wealth funds and multinational banks—demands a different kind of infrastructure. It requires regulatory clarity, institutional-grade security, and a bridge to tangible value. That's the gap ADI Chain is targeting, positioning itself not as another playground for retail traders, but as a compliant rail for heavyweight capital.

Stablecoins Meet Sovereign Strategy

The play is straightforward: anchor the digital economy to the region's economic pillars. By focusing on stablecoin settlements and tokenized real-world assets (RWA), the chain aligns directly with MENA's ambitions in remittances, trade finance, and sovereign asset management. It's a pragmatic bet on utility over hype.

The Compliance Edge

Navigating MENA's fragmented regulatory landscape is a notorious headache. A chain built with this as a first principle, rather than an afterthought, holds a distinct advantage. It turns a common barrier to entry into its core moat—offering a sanctioned path for institutions that can't afford regulatory uncertainty.

The Bottom Line

This isn't about chasing the next meme coin pump. It's a calculated infrastructure play for the boring, multi-trillion-dollar business of moving real value. While crypto Twitter debates the next narrative, ADI Chain is quietly building the plumbing for the institutions that actually move markets. After all, in high finance, the most profitable innovations are often the ones that best replicate the old system, just with a blockchain sticker on top.

The Infrastructure Gap Nobody Built For

The current blockchain infrastructure was built for permissionless trading and decentralized finance. These priorities don’t align with what governments need: compliance built into the system, strong controls from the beginning, and customization for each country without breaking interoperability.

Speed and low transaction costs matter, but they’re baseline requirements. The real bottleneck is the lack of infrastructure built with compliance at its core. Governments need blockchain rails that operate within existing frameworks and meet the same security standards as traditional financial systems.

This mismatch between what sovereign institutions require and what blockchain networks deliver has blocked meaningful adoption for years.

Building Tomorrow’s Infrastructure

Abu Dhabi has spent five decades turning vision into infrastructure. The emirate has consistently adopted new economic drivers across AI, aviation, finance, and digital systems – the track record matters when building technology for government-scale deployment.

The ADI Foundation represents the digital extension of that vision, and ADI Chain is the infrastructure that brings it to life: a blockchain infrastructure built for governments, central banks, and institutions managing trillions in real-world assets. As the first institutional L2 in the MENA region, ADI Chain has been selected to host a dirham-backed stablecoin set to be regulated by the UAE Central Bank. Beyond stablecoin infrastructure, ADI has partnered with ADREC to tokenize Abu Dhabi’s real estate, signed an MoU with Emirates Driving Company to pilot blockchain-based solutions, and is building rails for onboarding emerging economies at scale.

Three Pillars: Compliance, Efficiency, Security

ADI’s architecture was designed to solve requirements that sovereign institutions cannot compromise on:

infrastructurebegins with the ADI Foundation, which is regulated under the ADGM frameworkThis setup enables governments to deploy blockchain systems that meet their compliance standards while maintaining interoperability across borders.

execution leverages ZKsync’s Airbender technology, making ADI the first blockchain to implement the latest generation of zero-knowledge proof systems.

is built into ADI Chain’s architecture and strengthened by OpenZeppelin, which has completed a full audit covering Core contracts, infrastructure, token standards, and critical systems.

The Flagship Use Case: Dirham-backed Stablecoin

ADI Chain was chosen to host the UAE Dirham-backed stablecoin, which will be issued by two major players in the region: First Abu Dhabi Bank and IHC, and is set to be regulated by the UAE Central Bank.

The structure matters. FAB and IHC issue the stablecoin. The Central Bank provides regulatory oversight. ADI Chain delivers the settlement rails. This collaboration creates an infrastructure that financial institutions can build on without competitive conflicts.

This marks a milestone for regulated national stablecoins on a public LAYER 2 in the MENA region. The credibility signal is unmistakable: when a Central Bank trusts your infrastructure for monetary settlement, governments worldwide take notice.

This key use case represents a larger vision. ADI is building infrastructure to support multiple governments in launching regional stablecoins, all operating on the same compliance-ready, efficient, and secure settlement layer.

About ADI Foundation & ADI Chain

ADI Foundation is an Abu Dhabi-based non-profit organization founded by Sirius International Holding (a subsidiary of IHC), dedicated to empowering governments and institutions in emerging markets through blockchain infrastructure and partnerships needed to unlock sovereign digital economies and drive large-scale social and economic inclusion. Its mission is to bring 1 billion people into the digital economy by 2030, building on a strong foundation of 500+ million people already within its reach.

ADI Chain is the first institutional Layer 2 blockchain for stablecoins and real-world assets in the MENA region. Built by the ADI Foundation, ADI Chain provides settlement infrastructure for First Abu Dhabi Bank and IHC’s forthcoming UAE Central Bank-regulated stablecoin. Built on three pillars (Compliance, Efficiency, Security), ADI Chain serves governments implementing blockchain infrastructure across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

For more information, visit the Official Website, follow on LinkedIn, or X.