Shipfinex and ADI Chain Launch $500M Ship Tokenization Pilot

Shipfinex teams with ADI Chain to tokenize $500M fleet — but tokens aren’t live yet Dubai-based shipping finance platform Shipfinex has partnered with ADI Chain to pilot tokenization of about 35 vessels valued at roughly $500 million. The deal aims to open up traditionally illiquid maritime assets to blockchain-based financing and broader investor pools, though the firms stress the program remains in a pilot and regulatory-readiness phase and no tokens have been publicly issued. How the structure would work - Each vessel would be held in its own special-purpose vehicle (SPV). That off-chain legal wrapper would enable tokens to represent discrete economic rights tied to an individual ship. - Depending on deal economics, tokens could represent vessel-backed credit, income streams linked to charter agreements, or other ship-specific claims. Separating ships into SPVs lets each vessel’s economic rights be structured independently from the rest of the portfolio. - ADI Chain will provide the blockchain infrastructure for token distribution and settlement. Primary allocations and later payouts are expected to use stablecoins denominated in UAE dirhams, U.S. dollars and potentially other currencies. Where this fits in the market - Shipfinex’s $500 million pipeline is small relative to the global maritime market: Clarksons Research valued the world fleet and orderbook at about $2.1 trillion at the start of 2026. - Tokenizing vessels transfers an asset class typically financed through bank loans, leases and private capital into a model where defined economic rights are represented and settled on-chain — combining off-chain legal structures (SPVs) with on-chain distribution and settlement (ADI Chain). - Similar approaches have appeared elsewhere. Ethra Ship launched a protocol separating a governance token from a regulated real-world-asset (RWA) investment layer backed by vessel-owning SPVs; Ethra noted single ship prices commonly range between $30 million and $120 million. ADI Chain’s role and Abu Dhabi context - Beyond ledgering tokens, ADI Chain will support distribution and settlement, including processing stablecoin transactions. The network already underpins several Abu Dhabi digital-asset projects: - In May, ADI Foundation and partners were involved in enabling BNY’s institutional custody services for Bitcoin and Ether in Abu Dhabi Global Market, with the platform intended to expand into stablecoins and tokenized RWAs. - In February, a UAE dirham-backed stablecoin (DDSC) launched on ADI Chain after UAE Central Bank approval, offering dirham-denominated settlement rails that Shipfinex could tap for allocations and distributions. RWA momentum and market sizing - Tokenized real-world assets have been growing rapidly. Data from RWA.xyz showed roughly $38.1 billion in tokenized RWAs as of Aug. 9, with tokenized U.S. Treasuries and commodities forming meaningful shares. - The market expanded sharply in 2025–26: estimates placed tokenized RWAs at about $31–34 billion by May, up from roughly $5.4 billion at the start of 2025. At that time, Ethereum hosted about 60% of on-chain RWA value and tokenized U.S. Treasuries accounted for about $15 billion. - Institutional forecasts are much larger: a recent Standard Chartered report projects tokenized RWAs could reach $4 trillion by end-2028 (split roughly $2 trillion in stablecoins and $2 trillion in RWAs), suggesting massive room for growth if regulatory and market hurdles clear. Status and next steps - Shipfinex has identified a pipeline of roughly 35 vessels but has not moved them into public issuance. The partnership with ADI Chain is in pilot and operational-readiness stages while the regulated route for issuing Maritime Asset Tokens is being finalized. - If completed, the program would illustrate how SPV-based legal structures and blockchain settlement rails can combine to fractionalize high-value, traditionally illiquid maritime assets — potentially unlocking new capital sources for shipowners and new investment opportunities for on-chain and off-chain investors. What to watch - Regulatory approvals and the final token economic models (credit vs. charter-income vs. other rights). - Which stablecoins and currencies are used for allocations and distributions. - Whether the pilot transitions to a public issuance and how market demand materializes for tokenized vessel exposure. Shipfinex and ADI Chain are positioning to bring a long-sequestered asset class onto on-chain rails — but for now it remains a carefully staged pilot awaiting legal and regulatory green lights.