DUBAI, UAE — June 9, 2026: Blockchain infrastructure company Keeta and UAE investment firm ASK Group have announced a strategic joint venture aimed at reshaping cross-border financial transactions and bringing Gulf commodities to global investors through blockchain technology.
The partnership combines Keeta’s high-speed Layer 1 blockchain network with ASK Group’s regional influence and institutional backing. The initiative has two primary objectives: modernizing international payments and remittance systems, and creating a blockchain-powered marketplace for tokenized Gulf commodities.
The project is being positioned as one of the Gulf region’s most ambitious blockchain infrastructure developments, leveraging advanced settlement technology and strong support from UAE-based institutions.
Keeta, backed by former Google CEO and technology investor Eric Schmidt, has gained attention for its network performance. According to the company, testing conducted alongside Google’s Spanner engineering team demonstrated processing speeds of up to 11.2 million transactions per second with settlement finality achieved in approximately 400 milliseconds.
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Sultan bin Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who leads ASK Group, said the initiative reflects the UAE’s ambition to play a leading role in the future of global finance.
“As a global financial center, the UAE is determined to lead the world as we enter this new era,” Sheikh Ahmed said. “This partnership is a long-term commitment to building the infrastructure that will define how trillions of dollars in real-world assets move.”
Enhancing Cross-Border Remittances
A key focus of the partnership is improving remittance services, a critical sector in the UAE, where millions of expatriates regularly send money to countries across Asia and Africa.
Major remittance corridors, including UAE-India, UAE-Pakistan, UAE-Philippines, and UAE-Kenya, collectively process tens of billions of dollars annually. Keeta’s blockchain network aims to reduce transfer times from hours or days to less than one second.
The company’s “anchor model” allows licensed financial institutions, banks, exchange houses, and payment providers to connect directly to its network through a single integration. This structure is designed to simplify cross-border transactions while maintaining compliance with existing regulatory frameworks.
Keeta Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ty Schenk said the venture seeks to modernize long-standing financial systems using next-generation technology.
“Together we are going to take assets and payment flows that have operated the same way for decades and put them on rails built for the next century,” Schenk said.
Bringing Gulf Commodities to Global Investors
Beyond payments, the joint venture plans to create a public blockchain-based exchange by 2027 that will offer tokenized ownership of physical Gulf commodities.
Under the proposed model, commodities such as oil, gold, silver, copper, and other industrial metals would be represented by digital tokens backed one-to-one by assets held in audited custody. Investors would be able to verify reserves through on-chain records and purchase fractional ownership of these assets.
The platform aims to provide retail and institutional investors worldwide with direct access to Gulf commodity markets, an area traditionally dominated by governments, producers, and large trading firms.
Supporters of the initiative believe tokenization could significantly expand market participation while improving transparency and settlement efficiency.
Technology Designed for Institutional Finance
Keeta’s blockchain infrastructure was developed to meet the performance and compliance requirements of large-scale financial institutions.
The network includes built-in compliance tools that allow issuers of tokenized assets to embed regulatory requirements directly into digital tokens. These rules can include investor eligibility standards, transfer restrictions, and jurisdiction-specific controls.
The platform also features a digital identity system designed to streamline customer verification processes, allowing users to maintain a single verified identity across multiple financial services operating on the network.
UAE Positioned as Strategic Hub
The companies cited the UAE’s growing reputation as a global center for digital asset innovation as a key factor behind the partnership.
Regulatory bodies such as Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) have helped establish a framework that continues to attract blockchain companies, financial institutions, and technology investors.
ASK Group holds exclusive rights to support and execute Keeta’s expansion across the UAE, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and India. The companies said future phases of the partnership will include expansion into additional remittance corridors, commodity classes, and regional markets.
With the UAE serving as the operational base, both organizations aim to create a blueprint for the broader adoption of blockchain-powered financial infrastructure across emerging global markets.
