The Dubai Future Finance Week has brought together regulators and market builders to discuss the future of tokenised markets and digital assets in the GCC region. At the Future Tokenisation Forum, the DFSA published its new report, Scaling Tokenisation: The Road Ahead, which draws on input from major industry players and sets out the key challenges and opportunities for tokenisation.
The report is designed to start a wider conversation with firms, investors, policymakers, and international standard setters about the future of tokenisation. It deliberately stops short of picking a winner, instead setting out where the industry agrees and where it does not, and not prescribing a particular technology, rulebook, or business model.
What the DFSA Report Covers
The Role of Regulators
Regulators played a key role in the discussions, with Michail Fekkas, first vice chairman of Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission, arguing that tokenisation changes how an instrument is issued, transferred, and traded, but not what it is. He noted that Europe already has the tools in place to regulate tokenised assets, and that the principle should stay simple: same activity, same risk, same regulatory outcome.
William Mason, director general of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, described a lighter-touch approach to regulation, where existing laws are audited and guidance is issued on how to interpret them, rather than rewriting them. He noted that the GFSC aims to finalise its stablecoin rules next month, and that the bigger worry is liquidity, with supervisors not wanting private assets moved on chain and sold to retail investors who then cannot get out.
The Market View
The market view was that tokenisation has barely left the pilot stage due to high costs, including legal advice, issuing vehicles, licences, and prospectuses. The founder of a UAE-based tokenisation platform noted that technology is no longer the bottleneck, but rather the economics, with the money currently going to lawyers, administrators, and technology vendors, rather than distribution and trading. He expects funds and traditional capital markets to grow fastest, and warned that tokenising an asset with no clear use will fail.
The UAE's Capital Market Authority is considering a discussion paper to review its tokenisation framework, which currently only covers securities and commodities. The authority is looking at which assets should qualify, how disclosure should work, who can custody tokens, and whether making illiquid assets easier to buy should change who they can be sold to.
Distribution and Liquidity
The forum's closing panel discussed the scale of the challenge, with roughly USD 3trn in crypto assets and about USD 300bn in stablecoins, against only USD 30bn to 40bn in tokenised real-world assets. A partner at SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's venture arm, noted that demand today comes mainly from crypto money looking for exposure to traditional assets, and that institutions are next, once settlement and collateral benefits make the economics work.
Paul Boots, senior director and head of sector development at VARA, said that the authority learns through regulatory pilots, and that issuance rules are clear, with licensed broker-dealers able to distribute tokens. He noted that the next step is for tokens to trade on more than one platform with market makers behind them, so retail buyers of property tokens can sell when they need to.
- The need for a unified ledger for clearing and settlement
- The importance of international cooperation and a global approach to regulating digital assets
- The need for regulators to share information and work together to protect consumers
In related news, Lianlian DigiTech has opened its Middle East regional office in DIFC, and will provide cross-border collections, foreign exchange, and vendor payouts for businesses trading between China, the Gulf, and global markets. The company already holds a DFSA Category 3D payment services licence and supports sellers on Noon, Amazon UAE, and Amazon Saudi Arabia.
