Gulf SWFs pilot asset tokenization to widen their investor base

GCC sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are testing tokenization as a way to pull outside capital into national assets without surrendering control. Mubadala Capital has tokenized one of its private-market funds through a tie-up with infrastructure provider Kaio, opening a vehicle once reserved for select institutions to a broader set of institutional and family-office investors. Saudi Arabia ran its first sovereign-native tokenized title-deed transfer in early 2026, and the Qatar Financial Centre is moving to allow real estate tokenization.

The regional pattern here is SWFs across the wider Gulf experimenting with infrastructure readiness, regulatory clarity, and governance for tokenization before any full rollout, Deloitte SWF leader Julie Kassab told us, and the goal is to boost portfolio flexibility, as part of broader digital transformation agendas, Deloitte’s Sovereign Wealth Fund leader Julie Kassab previously told EnterpriseAM.

The appeal is that tokenization lets funds widen their investor base without loosening their grip. Funds can bring fresh capital into specific assets or cashflow layers while preserving governance and long-term ownership of strategic national holdings, Kassab says. The tech also has operational upside: Automated payouts, faster investor onboarding, more efficient capital deployment, FTI Consulting’s managing director Jorge Carrasco tells us. Likeliest early participants are institutions with digital-asset mandates, particularly Asian and European players already active in tokenized real estate and infrastructure, plus family offices testing the water.

What to watch is whether regulation catches up. Cross-border scaling needs common rules on custody, settlement, disclosure, and investor protection across jurisdictions, Kassab says. Addressing cross-border governance will likely be the piece that decides whether this stays a set of pilots or becomes a real deployment channel, she adds. Funds also need valuation frameworks and independent verification wired into custody and reporting systems so tokens track real-time asset value. GCC central banks have already defined or are building licensing regimes for tokenized securities, Carrasco says, which puts the region ahead of the harmonization curve even as retail access stays capped by regulation.

Carrasco puts mainstream sovereign use around 2030, with tokenized assets coexisting alongside — not replacing — existing land registries and fund structures, at least at first. As frameworks mature, Kassab expects registries themselves to start moving on-chain, with a few real estate registries in the region, such as the Dubai Land Department, already laying the initial groundwork.