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Tokenization, Trust & the Future of Islamic Finance
Salam from the Best Place on Earth
Saâd Dhif
February 11, 2026
In partnership with
Dear Readers
Salam,
Swiss Islamic Finance does not look at yesterday’s markets.
We look at where the world is going.
My recent trip across the GCC confirmed one thing clearly:
👉 The demand for tokenization is accelerating: especially for real-world assets (RWA).
Governments, regulators, entrepreneurs, and investors are preparing for a future where assets are digitized, fractionalized, and globally tradable.
One cannot afford to watch from the sidelines.
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What Tokenization Actually Means
In simple terms:
Tokenization means digitizing assets like real estate, sukuk, infrastructure, or commodities on a blockchain.
This makes them:
Tradable
Fractional
Portable
Transparent
Traceable
Every transaction is recorded immutably.
Every ownership share is verifiable.
Every transfer leaves a transparent audit trail.
The blockchain becomes the ledger of trust.
Crypto & Islamic Finance: Not Opposites
A recent Nasdaq article explored how cryptocurrency aligns with Islamic banking principles.
The key arguments are simple:
Transparency
Asset-backing potential
Elimination of excessive uncertainty
Reduced reliance on intermediaries
Programmable contracts
These principles resonate with Shariah concepts of:
Amanah (trust)
Adl (justice)
Clarity in contracts
Real economic participation
Of course, not all crypto is compliant. Speculation, leverage, and gambling structures remain problematic.
But the technology itself?
It can strengthen Islamic finance, not weaken it.
A Reflection from Makkah
I ended my GCC trip with Umrah.
Standing before the Kaaba, I reflected on something profound.
The Kaaba is symbolically the first block of the longest and most important chains in history:
The chains of narration of Hadith.
The preservation and transmission of the Quran.
Sacred chains, carried with Amanah across generations.
Blockchain, in its essence, is also a chain.
A ledger designed to preserve trust, record truth, and ensure accountability.
Technology is neutral.
But when used correctly, it becomes a tool of Amanah.
This is how I see blockchain:
A mechanism to preserve the trust investors and entrepreneurs place in one another when building projects of meaning and value.
Swiss Islamic Finance & What Comes Next
Islamic finance is projected to grow from USD 2.2 trillion to over USD 12 trillion in the coming decade.
The GCC is preparing for tokenized sukuk, tokenized real estate, digital asset custody, and compliant DeFi.
Switzerland has the regulatory clarity, financial expertise, and institutional infrastructure to build bridges.
Swiss Islamic Finance intends to be part of that bridge, inshallah.
Not chasing hype.
Not copying trends.
But structuring real assets, with real transparency, for real long-term value.
The future of Islamic finance will not be analogue.
It will be tokenized.
And it will be built on chains of trust.