Not Good Enough for Government Work? Saudi Company Builds State-Approved Tokenization System

The first end-to-end tokenized property deed transfer, announced on 4 Feb, marked a milestone that little-known company droppRWA hopes will spark the next wave of tokenized real-world assets (RWA). The transaction involved the creation of a digital property deed, transfer of ownership and the title settled and recorded on the sovereign ledger in a little over a minute, a process that normally takes days.

Instead of using established blockchain protocols, the Saudi company is eschewing the digital wrapper approach to tokenized RWAs and deploying the blockchain as the operating system of the state or state-owned enterprises. In the tokenized property deed transfer, the national property law of the Kingdom was encoded into the smart contracts at the source, and the tokens serve as the title itself. Moving the token moved the title.

"What led us to construct a sovereign-grade solution was because we found ourselves in a market that demands that," said Faisal Monai, chief executive and co-founder of Riyadh-based droppRWA, in an interview with Sandmark. The firm built an architecture for the property deed tokenization that integrates directly with the National Real Estate Registry.

It is a world first. "I think we are still the only ones because most of the AI and Web3 initiatives are targeting individuals instead of governments," Monai told Sandmark. "We tried with major blockchains and major names, but we really found that they did not pay attention to this particular need, and it is because they are not interacting with these types of companies or entities."

Operationalizing compliance at scale

droppRWA developed a proprietary Trust Stack, which, in the case of the property deed tokenization, integrated national registry laws and compliance requirements directly into the blockchain settlement rails. It serves as a prime example of custom, regulatory-native marketplaces that connect national databases and frameworks with global capital.

Tokenization is shifting from an experimental fad to becoming a functional layer of modern financial infrastructure, according to a 20 Feb report by Brickken Research. The report surveyed global token issuers during the fourth quarter of 2025. A majority (85%) cited regulatory drag as a hindrance. The report noted that this pointed to the need for a compliance-first approach and that a competitive factor for platforms would lie in their ability to operationalize compliance at scale.

Launched last year as the strategic subsidiary of droppGroup, a Miami-based developer of AI and Web3 infrastructure, droppRWA claims it has already moved $3bn onto its infrastructure. Its much larger peer, Securitize, is the leading institutional-grade player, mostly due to its role as the tokenizer of BlackRock's BUIDL. BUIDL operates as a USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund and is the largest RWA with approximately $2bn in assets under management.

Securitize holds a 20% to 25% share of the RWA market, which has boomed due to institutional adoption, regulatory acceptance and a hunt for higher-yielding investments. The fractionalization of high-priced assets through tokenization has also created entirely new categories of investors. According to InvestaX, the total onchain RWA market (excluding stablecoins) was estimated at approximately $36bn as of late 2025.

Sovereign tech targets untapped sectors

Sovereign-grade RWA technology typically targets the most illiquid and high-value assets, including national real estate registries, natural resources and government debt.

droppRWA is taking aim at the less-explored asset classes in RWA, a space currently dominated by private credit, US Treasuries, other sovereign debt and gold. Monai previously worked at major technology brands such as Microsoft, Oracle and HP before helping to establish SADAD, a nationwide electronic bill presentment and payment system in Saudi Arabia. He now sees massive, untapped potential in sectors such as energy and mining.

In January, droppRWA signed a Strategic Memorandum of Understanding with a subsidiary of the French energy giant EdF to explore tokenizing renewable energy projects. This includes solar and wind farms and using blockchain to improve carbon credit systems. A growing consciousness about reducing personal carbon footprints could rev up the interest in carbon credits, Monai believes. "That's another market that I would love to see regulated and tokenized."

It also helped that droppGroup previously signed an agreement with Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil producer, focusing on Web3 technology and blockchain integration.

"An energy giant such as Aramco stepping into the Web3 domain kind of gave assurances to every little startup that this is where the world is going," Monai said. "They were quite pioneering, and that partnership happened because we've satisfied their sovereignty or maintained their sovereignty, total control over the blockchain."

Aligning with Vision 2030

Monai noted that the company's projects fit seamlessly into the Saudi Vision 2030 plan. This ambitious and far-ranging strategic framework was launched in 2016 and aims to transform the Kingdom by diversifying its economy, reducing its reliance on oil and modernizing its society.

"We call it financial innovation and financial development," he said, listing the two main pillars of financial inclusion and driving foreign direct investment into the Kingdom.

In partnership with Saudi developer RAFAL, droppRWA started a programme that allows citizens to buy fractional ownership in premium real estate for as little as 1 Saudi Riyal ($0.27).

"By definition, tokenization decentralizes investments, no matter what sector you're talking about. Basically, it makes it available for people who have a limited amount of wealth to be able to participate in major businesses that have assurances, sovereign assurances, but usually require a huge amount of capital to be able to participate," Monai said.

Likewise, unlocking the Saudi mining sector through tokenization could rapidly monetize an industry that has been slowly modernising. Monai noted that there are probably fewer than 10 companies holding active mining licences, while applications for new permits number over 1,000. "I would like to see mining companies being able to use funds and facilities to receive FDI."

Among the minerals at stake are gold, silver and phosphate. The government has identified the mining sector, which possesses an estimated $2.5tn in untapped mineral wealth, as a third economic pillar. Exploring a token-as-licence framework similar to the property deed tokenization could radically transform this landscape.

By tokenizing exploration permits, Saudi Arabia could trigger a flood of global institutional capital, allowing international investors to act as fractional funders of individual mining sites while the state retains ultimate oversight and control.

Catching up Dubai

Monai acknowledges that his nation has not historically been seen as a leader among Gulf jurisdictions in capturing digital asset opportunities. "Dubai has taken the lead in regulating and creating the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). That was definitely quite innovative in the region."

However, he is encouraged by the rapid catch-up currently underway. He pointed to droppRWA's work with the Ministry of Housing nine months ago on a sandbox for tokenization by property companies. The project included a controlled environment for the firms to test digital solutions, such as converting property deeds into tradable digital tokens that are compliant with national laws and adhere to consumer safety protocols.

"Three weeks ago, they graduated their first cohort out of the sandbox, the first nine companies that are licensed to offer tokenization to the public. I have never seen this in Saudi and I have a long history of working with the government in Saudi. The decision cycle is a lot faster than it used to be," Monai said.

A key driver has been a profound mindset shift among the leadership of the Kingdom. "It's OK to try. It's OK to fail for the right reasons and try again. If you're not making mistakes, you're really not adding any value or any new discoveries. It's the thing that made it easier for us," Monai said.

The 66-second tokenized deed transfer benchmark may be hard to beat. However, Monai, who is also the co-founder and chairman of droppRWA's parent company, droppGroup, believes it serves as definitive proof that tokenization within a state-controlled blockchain stack can offer sovereign-level compliance assurance without compromising on efficiency or restricting access to global capital.

Monai is steeped in understanding what governments require. He followed the 2004 launch of the SADAD government payment systems by building a correspondence management system that enabled over 50 Saudi government agencies to go paperless.

"We started from the top of the pyramid," he recalled. "And it kept me thinking about what's next for the government." That specific trajectory led droppGroup to envision the Trust Stack. "That speaks to the market today, but also caters to this sector tomorrow, because this sector has always been niche. It has more responsibility than corporations. It has social responsibility. It has economic as well as political responsibility."

Correction Note: We removed a reference to SettleMint from the 5th paragraph as droppRWA informed us it did not collaborate with SettleMint.