Bringing the Regulated Dirham to Market

The biggest stablecoin story of 2026 has nothing to do with dollars. Instead, it's about the Dirham 🇦🇪 More than 99% of stablecoins today are denominated in US dollars. That makes sense for a market that was built around the dollar. But as digital payments move into everyday business, one currency cannot serve every market. The UAE is a case in point. In the first half of 2026 alone, the UAE recorded AED 1.937 trillion in non-oil foreign trade. Businesses operating here pay suppliers, manage treasury, collect revenue and settle transactions in dirhams. Digital payment infrastructure should be able to do the same. That is where DDSC comes in. DDSC is a UAE dirham-backed payment token regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE and developed through the collaboration of IHC, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Sirius International Holding. Each DDSC is backed 1:1 by UAE dirham reserves held in ring-fenced accounts, with independent reserve attestations published monthly. The proposition is simple: Move AED as AED. For businesses, that can mean: • settling supplier payments in dirhams beyond traditional banking cut-off times • moving funds between approved participants with near-instant settlement • managing treasury and payment flows in the same currency in which the business operates • using regulated digital AED infrastructure without relying on a dollar-denominated stablecoin The infrastructure matters. But what matters more is what businesses can do with it. Since going live in February, more than AED 150 million has already been transacted using DDSC, including an AED 110 million institutional transaction. And in July, DDSC received a No Objection Certificate from the Central Bank of the UAE to partner with selected VARA-regulated exchange platforms, paving the way for broader access across business, merchant and retail payment use cases. The stablecoin market was built around the dollar. The next phase will be built around the currencies businesses actually use. For the UAE, that means the dirham. And DDSC is building exactly that, a modern payment infrastructure for the UAE dirham. #DDSC #DigitalPayments #UAE #Payments #Fintech