On July 5, 2026, the Central Bank of the UAE granted a no-objection certificate to DDSC, a UAE dirham-backed stablecoin developed by a consortium of International Holding Company (IHC), First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), and Sirius International Holding. The clearance opens the door for DDSC to list on exchanges regulated by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), effectively bringing the token from institutional testing into the retail crypto market.
DDSC processed roughly $40 million (150 million dirhams) during its institutional testing phase. The stablecoin is pegged 1:1 to the UAE dirham and operates on the ADI blockchain.
What the approval actually does
The federal certificate is a mandatory bridge in the UAE’s crypto stack. VARA licenses exchanges to operate in Dubai, but it does not regulate stablecoin issuance itself: that authority sits with the Central Bank under the Payment Token Services Regulation. Without central bank clearance, a VARA-licensed exchange cannot legally list or convert a local-currency stablecoin, no matter how many licences it holds.
The certificate confirms that DDSC has met the central bank’s compliance, asset-backing, and operational standards. That’s the mechanism by which the token now moves from private corporate rails to public retail infrastructure.
Syed Basar Shueb, CEO of IHC, framed the approval as another step in the “development of the UAE’s regulated digital financial ecosystem.”
Why this matters
More than 90 percent of the global stablecoin market is denominated in U.S. dollars. USDT and USDC dominate settlement across nearly every crypto exchange in the world. For a country trying to position itself as a regulated crypto hub, as the UAE has been doing for the past three years, that’s a strategic vulnerability. Every AED trade going through a USDT pair is a leak of settlement infrastructure to a foreign issuer, mostly Tether, which sits outside UAE jurisdiction entirely.
DDSC is the first attempt to plug that gap with a consortium of this weight behind it. IHC alone is one of the largest listed companies in the Middle East. First Abu Dhabi Bank is the country’s biggest bank by assets. Sirius International Holding brings payments and infrastructure expertise. That’s not a fintech startup; it’s a state-adjacent settlement rail.
The other angle worth noting: this is a private stablecoin, not a CBDC. The Central Bank is running its Digital Dirham (CBDC) program separately, and the two projects sit on different rails. The CBUAE’s willingness to approve a private AED-pegged token suggests they’re comfortable with a two-track approach: CBDC for interbank and wholesale settlement, private stablecoin for retail crypto. That’s a meaningfully different posture from, say, the ECB, which has been publicly wary of private euro stablecoins competing with the digital euro.
Where DDSC sits in the UAE stablecoin scene
- Digital Dirham (CBDC): Central Bank project, in pilot phase, not intended for public retail crypto trading.
- USDT, USDC: dominate AED trading pairs on UAE exchanges today.
- DDSC: new consortium-issued private stablecoin, cleared for retail as of July 5.
VARA has been issuing VASP licences at a fast pace this year, recently crossing the 50-licence mark with tokenised-asset platform Tribe Tokenisation FZE. Combined with the stablecoin certificate, the message is that the UAE is stacking the pieces for a functional local settlement layer: licensed exchanges + regulated AED stablecoin + eventual CBDC integration.
What to watch
- First listing. Which VARA-regulated exchange lists DDSC first. That platform gets first-mover status on AED-native pairs.
- Reserve reporting. DDSC’s transparency practices versus USDC (audited monthly) and USDT (opaque reserves). Weak reserve disclosures will hurt credibility fast.
- USD stablecoin push-back. Whether CBUAE starts restricting USDT/USDC promotion or listing in favour of DDSC. Aggressive move; likely gradual if at all.
- Cross-border corridors. IHC’s regional footprint suggests DDSC could be positioned for GCC-wide settlement, especially with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Bigger prize than domestic retail.
The DDSC approval isn’t going to displace USDT overnight. But it’s the first time the UAE has a credible, consortium-backed AED stablecoin cleared for the retail market. That’s a real inflection point in the country’s crypto infrastructure, and worth watching closely over the next six months.
Source: Bitcoin.com News: UAE Central Bank Clears DDSC for VARA Platforms
Independent editorial coverage of Bitcoin and crypto in the UAE, regulation, market moves, and policy analysis.
