Shipfinex and ADI Chain Launch $500M Pilot to Tokenize 35 Vessels

Shipfinex has tapped ADI Chain to bring a chunk of the shipping industry onto the blockchain, announcing plans to tokenize roughly 35 vessels valued at about $500 million. The pilot aims to open new financing and investment channels for shipowners by turning economic interests in individual ships into digital tokens. What they’re building - Each vessel would sit inside its own special-purpose vehicle (SPV), creating an off-chain legal wrapper through which tokens can represent defined economic rights tied to that specific ship. - Depending on deal structure, tokens could reflect vessel-backed credit, income from charter agreements, or other ship-linked cash flows. Isolating each ship in a separate SPV allows rights and risks to be structured independently across the portfolio. - ADI Chain will supply the blockchain infrastructure for distribution and settlement. Primary allocations and ongoing payouts are expected to use stablecoins denominated in UAE dirhams, U.S. dollars, and potentially other currencies. Where the project stands - The companies say the effort is still in a pilot and operational-readiness phase; no Maritime Asset Tokens from this $500 million pipeline have been publicly issued yet. The regulated route for issuance is still being finalized. Why it matters - Maritime transport handles more than 80% of global trade by volume, yet vessels have traditionally been financed via bank loans, leases and private capital and remain hard for typical investors to access. Tokenization promises a way to fractionalize these large, illiquid assets and enable blockchain-native distribution and settlement. - ADI Chain already supports UAE dirham stablecoin infrastructure (for example, DDSC) and has been involved in Abu Dhabi digital asset projects, including partnerships tied to institutional custody offerings. That could simplify using dirham-denominated stablecoins for token allocations and payouts. Market context and precedents - The $500 million portfolio is modest compared with the roughly $2.1 trillion valuation of the world fleet and ship orderbook (Clarksons Research, early 2026), but it fits into a fast-growing tokenized real-world assets (RWA) market. RWA.xyz data showed about $38.1 billion in tokenized RWAs as of Aug. 9, up sharply from roughly $5.4 billion at the start of 2025. - Similar maritime tokenization efforts are already emerging. In June, Ethra Ship launched a protocol separating a governance token from a regulated RWA layer backed by vessel-owning SPVs, using operating ships and charter revenue as the economic base. Ethra noted individual ships can cost $30–$120 million, illustrating the scale barriers tokenization aims to overcome. - Institutional forecasts are bullish: Standard Chartered projects tokenized assets could reach $4 trillion by end-2028 (split roughly $2 trillion each for stablecoins and RWAs), suggesting large upside if regulatory and operational hurdles are cleared. What’s next Shipfinex and ADI Chain will need to complete pilots, finalize the legal and regulated issuance path, and move assets into public issuance before investors can buy Maritime Asset Tokens. If successful, the project could be a blueprint for bringing more of the traditionally opaque, capital-intensive shipping sector onto blockchain rails — expanding financing options for owners and creating new, fractional investment products for digital-asset markets.