Zand and Ripple in strategic partnership to power digital economy with stablecoin and blockchain innovations

10 February 2026, Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Zand, an AI and blockchain-powered digital bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Ripple, the leading provider of blockchain-based enterprise solutions across traditional and digital finance, are partnering to help advance and support the digital economy, with innovative solutions powered by the Zand AED stablecoin (AEDZ) and Ripple’s USD (RLUSD) stablecoin.

The partnership, which builds on an earlier payments collaboration between the two companies, will see Zand and Ripple work together to explore initiatives, including enabling support for RLUSD within Zand’s regulated digital asset custody, the potential for direct liquidity solutions between AEDZ and RLUSD, and issuance of AEDZ on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a public blockchain with appropriate compliance, monitoring, and risk controls.

AEDZ is the UAE’s first regulated multi-chain AED-backed stablecoin on public blockchains. It is fully backed one-to-one by AED reserves that are held in segregated and regulated accounts, with independently audited smart contracts and reserve attestations.

RLUSD is a trusted, enterprise-grade stablecoin, and is fully backed by high-quality reserves, including US dollar deposits, short-term US government bonds, and other cash equivalents, with monthly third-party attestations.

Zand CEO Michael Chan said: “We believe that leveraging stablecoins, blockchain technology, and tokenization, can unlock powerful new use cases as traditional finance moves on-chain. Our partnership with Ripple represents a significant step forward in the growth of the digital asset ecosystem, and has the potential to revolutionize how both governments and businesses engage with trusted blockchain solutions in the UAE.”

Reece Merrick, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, at Ripple, said: “Our expanded partnership with Zand underscores our commitment to the UAE’s pioneering digital economy. Our collaboration is a key step in our mission to provide the UAE with the most secure, transparent, and efficient blockchain-powered financial tools available today. We look forward to driving the adoption of stablecoins and tokenized assets in the region, creating a robust foundation for the next generation of financial services.”

By some projections, the stablecoin market could grow to $4 trillion in the coming years, driven by increased adoption for transactions, the expansion of decentralized finance, and rising institutional interest. Stablecoin technologies play an integral role in the UAE’s Digital Economy Strategy, which aims to double the digital economy’s contribution to non-oil GDP by 2032.

Note: Any future initiatives are subject to applicable regulatory approvals and internal governance processes.