ADI Chain and Shipfinex Collaborate to Tokenize Commercial Ships
By Omkar Godbole|Edited by Jamie Crawley40 min ago3 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on The push for tokenizing commercial ships is gaining momentum. (Niklas9416/Pixabay)- ADI Chain and Shipfinex are collaborating to tokenize commercial ships, though no tokens have yet been issued.
- Shipfinex has received preliminary regulatory approval from Dubai's VARA but lacks a full operating license.
- This partnership is not the first of its kind; competitors like Galactica and Ethra Ship are already active in the maritime tokenization space.
The total value of the world’s commercial ships stands at an estimated $2 trillion. However, financing for their purchase and construction remains limited, relying heavily on established relationships among a small group of shipowners, banks, and specialized lenders.
This existing framework effectively excludes smaller operators and alternative investors from a substantial capital market.
Through blockchain technology, ADI Chain and Shipfinex aim to transform the ship-finance sector—valued at approximately $680 billion in bank lending, leasing, and export credit—by making it accessible to a broader array of institutional investors.
“Maritime finance possesses the scale, tangible assets, and commercial activity to evolve into a significant real-world asset category,” stated Ramana Kumar, President of the Stablecoin Ecosystem at ADI Foundation.
This collaboration indicates a shift in tokenization efforts, extending beyond traditional financial products to include physical assets like ships and warehouses, which are vital to the global economy.
Shipfinex is tasked with identifying suitable ships, structuring deals, and assessing their value, while ADI Chain will create blockchain tokens for these deals and manage payments via stablecoins—digital tokens pegged to real-world currencies such as the UAE dirham or the U.S. dollar. Currently, the focus is on "qualified institutional participants," meaning large, vetted investors rather than retail buyers.
According to Shipfinex CEO Capt. Vikas Pandey, this partnership will facilitate a regulated digital pathway into the ship-finance market, with every financial instrument linked to a tangible vessel and its economic framework.
While no maritime asset tokens have been issued yet, Shipfinex has identified around 35 vessels valued at approximately $500 million as potential candidates for tokenization, pending final regulatory approval and deal structuring. Each ship will be placed in its own legal entity, ensuring that financial difficulties affecting one vessel do not impact the others.
Investing in these tokens, once available, could offer institutional investors various benefits, including loans secured by the ship, shares of revenue generated from shipping contracts, or a broader economic interest in the vessel's value. However, token holders will not have legal ownership of the ships; the tokens merely represent a financial claim associated with the vessels, which will continue to be owned and operated in the traditional manner.
Maritime shipping is responsible for over 80% of global trade by volume, highlighting the significant potential within the tokenized real-world asset market, currently valued at around $38 billion.
Despite this, the ADI and Shipfinex collaboration is not the first initiative in this space. Galactica has already executed tokenized financing for vessels, including a bridge-financing deal for a large LNG carrier, while Ethra Ship launched a competing maritime protocol earlier this year, built on an existing shipping business.
ADI Chain, based in Abu Dhabi, is an institutional blockchain platform established by Sirius International Holding, a tech-focused subsidiary of International Holding Company (IHC). The platform is already home to DDSC, a dirham-backed stablecoin approved by the UAE Central Bank, which was used for a $30 million transaction earlier this year.
TokenizationLatest Crypto News