ADI Chain and Shipfinex Partner to Tokenize $680B Ship Finance Market
March 12, 2025 — ADI Chain and Dubai-based Shipfinex announced a partnership to tokenize commercial ships, opening the estimated $680 billion ship-finance market to a wider pool of institutional capital. The collaboration aims to bring blockchain rails to the $2 trillion commercial shipping asset class, though no tokens have been issued yet.
Immediate Details & Direct Quotes
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The partnership positions Shipfinex to identify vessels and structure investment deals while ADI Chain handles tokenization and stablecoin-based payments. Shipfinex has earmarked approximately 35 vessels worth around $500 million combined as candidates for tokenization, pending final regulatory approval and deal structuring.
“Maritime finance has the scale, real assets and commercial activity to become a major new real-world asset category,” said Ramana Kumar, President of Stablecoin Ecosystem at ADI Foundation, in the announcement shared with CoinDesk.
Shipfinex CEO Capt. Vikas Pandey stated the partnership would enable the company to “create a regulated digital route into this market, with every instrument tied to a real vessel, its economics and its legal structure.”
The initiative targets “qualified institutional participants” rather than everyday retail buyers. Each ship will reside in its own separate legal entity, protecting investors from cross-vessel financial contamination.
Market Context & Reaction
Shipfinex currently holds only an “In-Principle Approval” from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) — a preliminary clearance confirming initial background checks, not a full operating license. No maritime asset tokens have been issued to date.
This partnership isn’t the first move in maritime tokenization. Galactica has already completed tokenized vessel financings, including a bridge-financing deal for a 145,000 CBM LNG carrier on InvestaX’s regulated platform. Ethra Ship launched a competing maritime real-world asset (RWA) protocol in June.
Maritime shipping accounts for more than 80% of international trade in goods by volume, yet remains a largely untapped corner of the tokenized RWA market, which currently stands at roughly $38 billion.
Background & Historical Context
The commercial ship financing market has traditionally remained closed and relationship-driven, dominated by a small circle of shipowners, banks, and specialist lenders. This structure has shut smaller operators and alternative investors out of significant capital pools.
ADI Chain is the Abu Dhabi-based institutional blockchain platform founded by Sirius International Holding, the technology-focused subsidiary of International Holding Company (IHC). The blockchain already hosts DDSC, a dirham-backed stablecoin licensed by the UAE Central Bank. Earlier this year, IHC used DDSC to process a $30 million transaction on the chain.
The tokenization expansion signals a shift beyond financial instruments like government bonds and money market funds into physical, capital-intensive infrastructure such as ships and warehouses that underpin the global economy.
What This Means
For institutional investors, purchasing a token could represent several financial structures once available: a loan backed by the ship, a share of revenue from shipping contracts, or a broader economic stake in the vessel’s value.
Token holders will not receive legal ownership of the ships. The tokens represent financial claims tied to vessels while ownership and operations remain within the traditional commercial shipping framework.
The partnership aims to create a regulated digital route into maritime finance, with stablecoin payments enabling instant settlement without traditional bank wires.
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