A major slice of the commercial shipping finance market could soon gain access to blockchain infrastructure as ADI Chain partners with Shipfinex to develop tokenized financing for vessels.

Commercial ships are estimated to have a combined value of around $2 trillion, yet the financing market supporting their construction and purchase remains concentrated among traditional banks, shipowners and specialized lenders. This relationship-based system can make it difficult for smaller operators and alternative investors to participate.

ADI Chain and Dubai-based Shipfinex are looking to broaden that market by using blockchain technology to connect maritime assets with a larger pool of institutional capital. The companies estimate that ship-related bank loans, leasing and export-credit financing currently total about $680 billion.

Ramana Kumar, president of the stablecoin ecosystem at ADI Foundation, said maritime finance has the scale and real economic activity required to become an important category within the real-world asset market.

The partnership highlights the expanding scope of blockchain tokenization. While early RWA projects focused largely on government bonds and money-market instruments, the sector is increasingly moving toward tangible infrastructure assets such as ships and warehouses.

Shipfinex will identify vessels suitable for financing and design the associated investment structures. Its work will include evaluating individual ships, estimating their value and determining how each transaction should be organized.

ADI Chain will supply the blockchain infrastructure, representing those financing arrangements as digital tokens and handling settlement through stablecoins tied to currencies such as the U.S. dollar and UAE dirham. The approach is intended to streamline payments and reduce reliance on conventional bank transfers.

Initially, the products will be offered only to qualified institutional investors rather than retail participants.

Shipfinex CEO Capt. Vikas Pandey said the companies aim to establish a regulated digital route into maritime finance, with each tokenized instrument linked to a particular vessel, its financial performance and its legal structure.

The companies have not yet issued any maritime asset tokens. Shipfinex also does not currently hold a full license to launch them. Its “In-Principle Approval” from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority is an initial regulatory endorsement, rather than final authorization to operate.

Shipfinex has already shortlisted approximately 35 vessels with a combined value of around $500 million for potential tokenization. The transactions will proceed once regulatory requirements and deal structures are finalized.

Each vessel is expected to be held through its own legal entity. This would separate individual investments and help ensure that financial problems involving one ship do not automatically affect investors exposed to other vessels.

The financial rights represented by future tokens will depend on the structure of each deal. Potential arrangements could include ship-backed loans, claims on income generated by shipping contracts or broader exposure to the value of the underlying vessel.

Token holders, however, would not directly own the ships. Instead, the digital assets would represent financial claims associated with the vessels, while ownership and operations would remain within existing commercial structures.

The maritime sector carries more than 80% of global goods trade by volume, according to the companies. Despite that importance, shipping remains a relatively underdeveloped segment of the tokenized real-world asset industry, whose total value is estimated at roughly $38 billion.

ADI Chain and Shipfinex are also entering a market where other blockchain projects are already active. Galactica has completed tokenized vessel financing deals, including bridge financing for a 145,000-cubic-meter LNG carrier through InvestaX’s regulated platform. Ethra Ship launched another maritime RWA protocol in June built around an existing shipping business.

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