Ripple has partnered with regulated custody provider Ctrl Alt to support the Dubai Land Department's (DLD) Real Estate Tokenization Project, marking the first government-led property title tokenization on a public blockchain in the Middle East. The collaboration will utilize Ripple's institutional-grade custody technology to securely store tokenized property deeds issued on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
Ctrl Alt, recently licensed as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) by Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), becomes Ripple's inaugural major custody partner in the UAE. This regulatory approval enables end-to-end compliant tokenization covering asset issuance, on-chain settlement, and lifecycle management for the DLD initiative.
"This reinforces XRPL's credentials as the blockchain of choice for serious financial use cases", stated Reece Merrick, Ripple's Managing Director for Middle East and Africa. The project enables fractional ownership and enhances market transparency while positioning Dubai to attract broader real estate investment.
The partnership expands Ripple's global custody network across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. This follows Ripple's earlier regulatory milestones in Dubai, including becoming the first blockchain payments provider licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and securing recognition for its stablecoin RLUSD.
This development occurs amid growing institutional tokenization momentum, highlighted by Bergen County, New Jersey's separate initiative to tokenize $240 billion in property deeds on Avalanche. Industry projections estimate tokenized illiquid assets could reach $16 trillion globally by 2030.