$2 Trillion Asset Market Set to Move Onto a New Blockchain Rail

Commercial shipping could become the next major target for blockchain-based financing as ADI Chain partners with maritime tokenization company Shipfinex to bring vessel-backed investments onchain.

Commercial ships themselves are estimated to have a combined value of about $2 trillion. However, financing for ship purchases and construction remains largely relationship-based, with banks, shipowners and specialized lenders controlling much of the market.

That traditional structure can make it difficult for smaller operators and alternative investors to access the sector’s substantial financing pool.

ADI Chain and Dubai-based Shipfinex are now looking to use blockchain infrastructure to broaden access to the maritime finance market. The sector currently represents an estimated $680 billion in bank lending, leasing and export-credit financing.

“Maritime finance has the scale, real assets and commercial activity to become a major new real-world asset category,” Ramana Kumar, president of the stablecoin ecosystem at ADI Foundation, said in an announcement shared with CoinDesk.

The partnership reflects a broader expansion of asset tokenization beyond traditional financial products such as government bonds and money-market funds. Increasingly, blockchain firms are exploring physical assets and capital-intensive infrastructure, including ships and warehouses, that support the global economy.

Shipfinex will identify suitable vessels and structure potential investment opportunities. Its responsibilities include assessing ships, determining their value and establishing how individual financing arrangements should be structured.

ADI Chain, meanwhile, will convert those arrangements into blockchain-based tokens and facilitate payments through stablecoins. These digital assets are designed to maintain a one-to-one value with traditional currencies such as the U.S. dollar or UAE dirham, potentially allowing transactions to settle without conventional bank transfers.

The initial offering will target qualified institutional investors rather than retail participants.

Shipfinex CEO Capt. Vikas Pandey said the partnership is designed to provide a regulated digital pathway into maritime finance, with each investment instrument linked to a specific vessel, its underlying economics and its legal framework.

However, no maritime asset tokens have been issued through the partnership yet. Shipfinex also does not currently have final regulatory authorization to launch them. Its approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority is currently an “In-Principle Approval,” which represents preliminary regulatory clearance rather than a full operating license.

Shipfinex has nevertheless identified approximately 35 vessels with a combined estimated value of $500 million as potential candidates for tokenization once regulatory and structural requirements are completed.

Each vessel is expected to be placed in a separate legal entity. The structure is intended to isolate individual assets so that financial problems involving one ship do not directly affect investments linked to another.

Depending on how each transaction is designed, institutional investors could potentially receive different types of financial exposure. A token could represent a loan secured by a vessel, a claim on revenue generated through shipping contracts or broader economic exposure to the ship’s value.

Importantly, holding such a token would not necessarily give investors legal ownership of the underlying vessel. Instead, the token would represent a financial claim connected to the ship, while ownership and operations would remain with the existing commercial structure.

The maritime industry handles more than 80% of global goods trade by volume, according to the announcement, making shipping a potentially significant but relatively underdeveloped segment of the tokenized real-world asset market. That market currently has an estimated value of around $38 billion.

ADI Chain and Shipfinex are not the first companies to explore blockchain-based maritime finance. Galactica has already completed tokenized vessel financing transactions, including bridge financing for a 145,000-cubic-meter LNG carrier through InvestaX’s regulated platform. Ethra Ship also launched a competing maritime real-world asset protocol in June using an established shipping business.

ADI Chain is an Abu Dhabi-based institutional blockchain platform established by Sirius International Holding, the technology arm of International Holding Company (IHC). The network already supports DDSC, a dirham-backed stablecoin licensed by the UAE Central Bank. Earlier this year, IHC used DDSC to execute a $30 million transaction on the blockchain.

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