Arabian Post Staff -Dubai
The arrangement expands DDSC’s distribution beyond its initial institutional use and follows regulatory approvals that opened the way for the token to appear on selected platforms overseen by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Fasset and DDSC said the listing would give eligible users a regulated route to access, exchange and use the dirham-denominated token through Fasset’s digital financial infrastructure.
Under the planned integration, customers will be able to move between DDSC and other supported stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT. The companies also said the partnership establishes a framework for potential joint card issuance, merchant payment acceptance and fiat on- and off-ramp services, subject to applicable regulatory and operational requirements.
DDSC is pegged 1:1 to the UAE dirham and operates on ADI Chain, an institutional Layer-2 blockchain developed by the Abu Dhabi-based ADI Foundation. The token was approved by the Central Bank of the UAE to go live in February, after being developed through a collaboration involving International Holding Company, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Sirius International Holding.
The Central Bank later issued a no-objection certificate allowing DDSC to be made available on selected VARA-regulated exchange platforms, broadening its potential use beyond institutional settlement. By early July, more than Dh150 million in DDSC transactions had been processed, according to statements issued by the project’s partners.
The Fasset agreement is intended to extend that access through a platform that already provides stablecoin, payments and investment services across a large international customer base. Fasset said in August that it served more than three million wallets and over 1,000 enterprises across 125 countries, while processing more than $40 billion in annualised transaction volume.
Fasset also raised $68 million in a Series C funding round led by Japan’s SBI Group in August, valuing the company at $1 billion. The financing followed a $51 million Series B round announced in May and was earmarked partly for the expansion of its regulated financial network connecting banks, telecommunications companies, payment providers and liquidity partners.
The DDSC integration builds on an earlier partnership between Fasset and ADI Foundation. Under that arrangement, Fasset agreed to provide regulated onboarding, know-your-customer checks and fiat on- and off-ramp infrastructure for blockchain-based financial services operating on ADI Chain, including applications involving dirham-backed stablecoins.
The latest move comes as DDSC’s retail and merchant use cases are beginning to move from approval into live testing. Network International launched an in-store DDSC payment pilot this month at selected retail locations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, allowing customers to scan a QR code at existing point-of-sale terminals and enabling merchants to receive settlement either in DDSC or UAE dirhams.
The UAE Central Bank’s Payment Token Services Regulation, effective since August 2024, sets licensing and supervisory requirements for payment-token issuance, conversion, custody and transfer. It requires dirham payment tokens to be denominated in UAE dirhams and provides for redemption at par value, while restricting payment-token services to licensed or registered providers.
The regulation also limits merchants in the UAE to accepting qualifying payment tokens issued within the regulatory framework. These rules have made regulatory authorisation central to the rollout of stablecoin-based payment services and have shaped how exchanges, wallets and payment processors can support dirham-linked digital assets.
For DDSC, Fasset’s proposed listing creates a direct conversion channel between a dirham-denominated stablecoin and the two dollar-linked tokens that dominate much of global crypto trading and settlement. USDT and USDC are widely used as digital cash equivalents for trading, transfers and treasury management, making interoperability with them important for liquidity and cross-border movement.
The companies have not disclosed a timetable for the planned card programme or broader merchant acceptance under their collaboration. Any expansion into those services would depend on regulatory approvals, technical integration and agreements with payment and banking partners.
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