Qatar National Bank is to launch Dubai’s first ever tokenised money market fund within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in partnership with blockchain fintech DMZ Finance.
In a media announcement on Tuesday (8 July), QNB announced that the Dubai Financial Services Authority had granted regulatory approval for the QCD Money Market Fund (QCDT) whose investment strategy will be led by QNB.
Silas Lee, chief executive officer of QNB Singapore, said the launch was in keeping with the bank’s strategy to be at the forefront of innovation in financial services.
“As the Middle East rapidly emerges as a global hub for financial innovation, the successful deployment of QCDT further consolidates QNB’s leadership in the regional financial ecosystem and reflects our long-term vision to shape the next generation of financial infrastructure,” he said.
DMZ Finance is a real world asset tokenisation (RWA) platform and has agreed an official partnership with QNB to support the acceleration of asset tokenisation in the region.
Nathan Ma, co-founder and chairman of the company said the news was further evidence than tokenisation of RWAs was no longer experimental, instead calling it “foundational”.
He said: “Our goal at DM said is to provide the connective tissue between traditional markets and the digital asset ecosystem particularly in regions ready for innovation.”
Dubai is positioning itself as a global hub for digital assets. In 2022, it launched the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the first independent regulator for virtual assets.
In 2024, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) introduced Digital Assets Law No. 2, setting out clear rules for crypto and tokenised assets.
