Gibraltar’s government and Abu Dhabi-based ADI Foundation have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore creating a multi-currency stablecoin consortium, with digital currencies referenced to sterling, the US dollar and the euro. The announcement marks an early-stage commitment rather than a live product: issuance remains contingent on commercial viability, the recruitment of founding members drawn from Gibraltar-licensed institutions, and full regulatory authorisation.

Under the proposed structure, each currency would be issued through a separate entity, with reserves held one-for-one in high-quality liquid assets denominated in the corresponding reference currency. Reserves would be independently attested and subject to annual audit. ADI Foundation would provide issuance infrastructure through ADI Chain, which the foundation describes as the GCC and MENA region’s first sovereign digital infrastructure built for governments and institutions.

The regulatory and structural angle

Gibraltar’s involvement carries some credibility in the distributed ledger technology space. The territory introduced a purpose-built regulatory framework for DLT businesses in 2018, making it an early mover among common law jurisdictions. The government has since added a bespoke prediction market regime and legislation facilitating tokenised fund shares and DLT-based share registers. Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry Nigel Feetham KC MP said the stablecoin project builds on that legislative track record and forms part of a nine-month international outreach programme aimed at attracting digital-finance investment.

ADI Chain already acts as settlement infrastructure for DDSC, a dirham-backed stablecoin initiated by IHC, Sirius International Holding and First Abu Dhabi Bank, which holds a licence from the UAE Central Bank. That live deployment gives ADI Foundation a reference architecture for reserve management and institutional issuance, though operating sterling- and euro-referenced instruments in European regulatory perimeters introduces a separate compliance layer. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, which came into force progressively from 2024, sets out specific requirements for e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens, and any euro-denominated issuance targeting EU counterparties will need to navigate that framework carefully.

Market context

The broader institutional stablecoin segment is maturing quickly. Several consortia and sovereign-adjacent projects are competing to become the settlement layer connecting payments corridors across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Fnality International, backed by a group of global banks, has been building sterling and dollar payment system assets for wholesale settlement. JPMorgan‘s Kinexys network and the BIS Project mBridge have demonstrated cross-border settlement use cases at scale. The Gibraltar-ADI project’s stated long-term ambition, connecting Europe and Africa through the AfCFTA digital trade infrastructure that ADI is developing with the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, addresses a corridor that is structurally underserved by existing correspondent banking rails but also one where regulatory fragmentation across dozens of jurisdictions is a genuine execution risk.

Ajay Bhatia, Principal Council Member at ADI Foundation, said the project’s ambition is “to explore building a regulated financial infrastructure that allows digital money to move seamlessly between institutions, markets and economies”, adding that Gibraltar brings DLT experience while ADI brings infrastructure and an international network.

The parties will also assess whether consortium management, operations and compliance functions should be based in Gibraltar, which would affect licensing obligations and the jurisdiction’s capacity to supervise a multi-currency issuer. The next concrete milestones to watch are the identity of founding bank members and the regulatory pathway chosen for the sterling instrument, where the Bank of England’s evolving stablecoin regime will be the primary gating factor.

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