Dubai Launches Real Estate Tokenization Pilot
The Dubai Land Department (DLD) has launched a landmark pilot program to enable the tokenization of real estate assets. The initiative will allow properties to be bought, sold, and traded as blockchain-based tokens. The DLD expects the move to increase transparency, streamline property transactions, and attract more global investment into Dubai's real estate market.
- The initiative is a collaboration between the DLD, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the Dubai Future Foundation, and the UAE Central Bank, operating within a regulatory sandbox to test the framework. - The government-backed platform, known as Prypco Mint, utilizes tokenization infrastructure from the company Ctrl Alt and runs on the XRP Ledger blockchain. - The initial pilot phase successfully tokenized ten properties valued at over $5 million (AED 18.5 million), creating approximately 7.8 million tokens. - A second phase of the pilot launched in February 2026 to establish a controlled secondary market, allowing for the resale of the previously issued tokens. - During the pilot, investment is open to UAE residents with a minimum buy-in of AED 2,000 (approximately $545), and all transactions are conducted in UAE Dirhams, not cryptocurrency. - This project is part of Dubai's broader Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033, which aims to grow the tokenized property market to an estimated AED 60 billion ($16 billion) by 2033.
