September 17, 2025, marks a milestone for the Middle Eastern financial world. The QCD Money Market Fund (QCDT), a collaborative effort between the largest bank in the Middle East and Africa, QNB Group, global giant Standard Chartered, and innovative fintech company DMZ Finance, has officially launched at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). This launch establishes the DIFC's first regulated tokenized money market fund, setting a new industry benchmark for Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization in the Middle East.
The successful launch of this fund is another prime example of the deep integration between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). The QCDT leverages blockchain technology to convert the yield from stable assets like U.S. Treasury bills and USD-denominated deposits into digital tokens, giving them unprecedented liquidity, transparency, and accessibility.
A Powerful Alliance Creates a Trusted Financial Infrastructure
The fund's structure highlights a strong collaboration and adherence to compliance:
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QNB Group serves as the initiator and manages the fund's underlying investments, ensuring asset quality.
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DMZ Finance acts as the exclusive tokenization infrastructure provider, offering core technical support for bringing traditional assets onto the blockchain.
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Standard Chartered plays a crucial role as the custodian, responsible for safeguarding the fund's underlying assets and providing institutional-grade security for investors.
Rola Abu Manneh, Chief Executive Officer for the UAE, Middle East, and Pakistan at Standard Chartered, stated that the launch of QCDT is a major milestone for the UAE's financial sector, reinforcing its position as a global hub for digital asset innovation. She emphasized that Standard Chartered will continue to provide trusted infrastructure for the convergence of traditional and digital finance.
QCDT: The "Golden Bridge" Between Traditional and Digital Finance
The value of QCDT goes far beyond being a mere investment product. It's a powerful tool that connects the traditional financial world with the digital one. QNB Group has already recognized it as an eligible collateral asset, and in the future, QCDT will be adopted as a mirrored collateral asset by leading global exchanges, providing a stable credit foundation for digital transactions.
Silas Lee, CEO of QNB Singapore, noted that QCDT allows high-quality traditional financial assets to be seamlessly integrated into the digital economy, making them more easily usable in smart contracts, such as for trading credits and loans.
Nathan Ma, Co-Founder and Chairman of DMZ Finance, also highlighted that QCDT effectively connects exchanges with institutional clients and addresses liquidity needs. He noted that major institutional clients and listed companies have already started to come on board, signaling that tokenized assets are becoming mainstream.
Looking Ahead: Defining the Future of Banking
As one of the first companies admitted to the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Digital Assets Lab, DMZ Finance is actively expanding its powerful RWA infrastructure into the Middle East, committed to driving the convergence of compliant tokenized assets between traditional and decentralized finance.
QNB Group stated that its partnership with DMZ Finance is a key step in its vision to "define the banking of the future." As the market continues to evolve, innovative products like QCDT will accelerate the transformation of financial services, bringing broader opportunities to investors worldwide.
