Saudi Arabia is moving to tokenize its economy with a $12.5 billion mandate secured by droppRWA, the kingdom’s largest tokenization platform, aiming to bring trillions of dollars of real-world assets onchain by 2030.
“By 2030, Saudi Arabia will have demonstrated something the rest of the world is still debating: that sovereign-grade tokenization can function as core national financial infrastructure,” Faisal Monai, chairman of droppRWA, said in an interview.
The plan will begin with the real estate sector, with stablecoin-based settlement expected to go live by late 2026. The move follows a successful tokenized property deed transfer on February 4 that reduced settlement times from days to seconds. The global tokenized asset market is already valued at over $25 billion as of March 2026, with tokenized U.S. Treasuries alone accounting for $15.5 billion.
The initiative represents a strategic push by the Gulf nation to enhance financial resilience and create "always-on" regulated capital markets. By anchoring digital value to real assets, the kingdom aims to build a more sovereign settlement infrastructure that complements, rather than replaces, the existing U.S. dollar-based system, with a goal of having other G20 nations emulate the model.
Faisal Monai, known as the architect of the kingdom's modern financial plumbing for his role in creating the SADAD digital payments system in 2004, is leading the charge. SADAD digitized a cash-heavy system, handling over 14.5 billion transactions worth roughly $250 billion in 2025.
Monai argues that tokenization provides certainty of ownership, transfer, and settlement, which becomes a critical "safety layer" during periods of global market volatility. "The goal isn’t more ‘crypto trading,’ but rather capturing that ‘always-on’ resilience for regulated, sovereign capital markets," he said.
The project aligns with Saudi Arabia's broader Vision 2030 and its push into advanced digital infrastructure, supported by investments from major technology firms. Microsoft confirmed its new Azure cloud datacenter region in the kingdom will be operational from Q4 2026, specifically to support such AI and digital ambitions.
While Monai dismisses the idea of de-dollarization, he envisions a "multi-rail" financial reality where sovereign settlement infrastructure operates alongside traditional systems. The focus is on settlement utility, not speculative instruments. "The moment reserves are deployed for returns, the guarantee becomes contingent," Monai warned, emphasizing the focus on non-yield-bearing, fully-reserved stablecoins for settlement.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
