BlackRock has declared that it has signed an MoU during the current Abu Dhabi Finance Week with IHC Group entities, Finstreet Limited, and ADI Foundation, to explore projects on the development of tokenized markets and next-generation financial architecture, in line with the digital economy aspirations of Abu Dhabi.
Finstreet Limited, a digital market infrastructure group, and ADI Foundation, an Abu Dhabi-based organization of sovereign-grade blockchain infrastructures, both of which are group entities of IHC via Sirius International Holding.
They will collectively look into efforts to build capital markets, architect digital asset solutions, broaden digital finance, and apply their collective understanding to help enable access to tokenized investment products.
Principal Council Member at the ADI Foundation, Ajay Bhatia, said, “This partnership represents a critical step forward in Abu Dhabi’s evolution as a center for digital asset innovation. By aligning our sovereign-grade ADI Chain with BlackRock’s expertise, we aim to jointly enable compliant, scalable digital finance solutions that serve both local and global markets. This collaboration is about unlocking new opportunities and building trust in the future of capital markets.”
Managing Director, Head, Financial Markets Advisory Middle East at BlackRock, Kashif Riaz, stated that “We are excited to pursue opportunities with Finstreet and ADI to help advance digital assets and tokenized markets initiatives. The global market environment for digital assets innovation is rapidly evolving, and we look forward to contributing our experience to support the long-term growth of digital markets infrastructure in ADGM.”
Founder & Group CEO of Finstreet Limited, Sunidhi Pasan, added that “Our partnership with BlackRock reflects a shared conviction that tokenization is becoming the operating system of global markets. Finstreet’s regulated infrastructure in ADGM — spanning custody, settlement, and secondary trading — provides the rails for assets to move faster, safer, and with far greater transparency. Together, we will shape the core architecture of global capital. Abu Dhabi is emerging as the centre of this new system, and Finstreet is leading the design of a digitized global financial market.”
Based on the BlackRock experience of advising exchanges globally, the partnerships will be advisory-based to both Finstreet and the ADI Foundation as they consider further developing on the ambitions of Abu Dhabi to take the lead in digital transformation.
This will involve building up strong market infrastructure and commercialization of products and wider deployment of blockchain to financial markets.
