Zand and Ripple announced a strategic partnership in Dubai aimed at accelerating the growth of the digital economy in the United Arab Emirates. At the heart of the collaboration are two regulated stablecoins: the AED-backed Zand stablecoin (AEDZ) and Ripple’s USD-backed stablecoin (RLUSD). Together, the companies plan to develop innovative blockchain-based solutions that bridge traditional finance and digital assets.
Zand, an AI- and blockchain-powered digital bank licensed in the UAE, has positioned itself as a forward-looking institution connecting regulated banking with digital asset infrastructure. Ripple, a global leader in enterprise blockchain solutions for financial institutions, brings extensive experience in payments, liquidity management, and tokenization. This expanded partnership builds on an earlier payments collaboration and now moves into deeper integration across custody, liquidity, and blockchain issuance.
Among the key initiatives under exploration is enabling support for RLUSD within Zand’s regulated digital asset custody framework. The two firms are also assessing direct liquidity solutions between AEDZ and RLUSD, potentially streamlining cross-border transactions between the UAE dirham and the US dollar. In addition, Zand is considering issuing AEDZ on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a public blockchain designed with compliance, monitoring, and risk controls in mind.
AEDZ is the UAE’s first regulated, multi-chain AED-backed stablecoin deployed on public blockchains. It is fully backed one-to-one by AED reserves held in segregated and regulated accounts, supported by independently audited smart contracts and reserve attestations. RLUSD, meanwhile, is backed by high-quality reserves including US dollar deposits, short-term US government bonds, and cash equivalents, with monthly third-party attestations reinforcing transparency and trust.
According to Zand CEO Michael Chan, leveraging stablecoins, blockchain technology, and tokenization can unlock powerful new use cases as traditional finance moves on-chain. The partnership with Ripple has the potential to reshape how governments and businesses in the UAE engage with trusted blockchain infrastructure. Ripple’s Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, Reece Merrick, emphasized that the collaboration reflects Ripple’s long-term commitment to the UAE’s pioneering digital economy and its mission to provide secure, transparent, and efficient blockchain-powered financial tools.
Market projections suggest that the global stablecoin sector could grow to as much as $4 trillion in the coming years, fueled by increased transaction usage, the expansion of decentralized finance, and rising institutional adoption. In this context, the Zand-Ripple partnership aligns closely with the UAE’s Digital Economy Strategy, which aims to double the digital economy’s contribution to non-oil GDP by 2032.
If regulatory approvals are secured, the integration of AEDZ, RLUSD, and the XRP Ledger could create a powerful bridge between regional currency systems, the global dollar economy, and tokenized financial assets. The partnership highlights how regulated financial institutions and blockchain innovators can work together to shape the next phase of digital finance in the Middle East and beyond.