The rise of autonomous AI agents is forcing a rethink of how money moves through the global financial system. While banks, cards, and payment rails were designed for humans and corporates, they struggle to accommodate machines that operate continuously, independently, and at speed. According to Vincent Chok, CEO and founder of First Digital (issuer of the fiat-backed stablecoin FDUSD), this mismatch is structural, not incremental.

“Traditional payment rails were built for human identity, not AI agents,” Chok said. “Current banking systems rely on deliberate consent, such as CAPTCHA, 3D Secure, and OTPs, that require a human in the loop.”

That requirement alone makes conventional finance incompatible with autonomous systems. “Without using digital assets like stablecoins, we are essentially trying to give a credit card to a machine that doesn’t have a face for biometrics or a thumb for a scanner,” he said. “This creates a structural identity gap that only digital-native rails can bridge through the use of AI agents transacting with digital assets like stablecoins.”

At the core of the problem is how financial identity is defined. “This reflects an evolution in how financial identity is defined,” Chok said. “Humans participate in the financial system through legal identity, and corporations through legal personhood, but autonomous AI agents require a different construct altogether.”

That construct, he argues, is economic identity. “An economic identity, defined by wallets, predefined spending limits, and cryptographic rules rather than physical presence or human approval.”

In practical terms, this shifts the basis of trust from paperwork and intermediaries to code and cryptography. It also explains why stablecoins and smart contracts are becoming foundational to agentic finance.

Why stablecoins fit machine-driven finance

Stablecoins remove the temporal and operational constraints of legacy banking. “Stablecoins turn money into programmable code, allowing financial settlement to happen at the same speed as the AI’s thought process,” Chok said.

While bank transfers can take days, the blockchain operates continuously. “By moving money to the blockchain, we shift from processing that sleeps on weekends and holidays to a 24/7 liquidity layer, settling transactions in seconds, any time, any day.”

Smart contracts add conditional logic to payments themselves. “Smart contracts allow us to embed the logic of a deal (if X happens, only then execute Y) directly into the currency itself, ensuring that payment only moves when a specific task is cryptographically verified.”

This combination enables financial activity that does not require supervision, escalation, or reconciliation after the fact, a prerequisite for machine-to-machine commerce.

Through its Finance District platform, First Digital is enabling AI agents to execute real-time stablecoin transactions. The result is a new category of use cases that were previously impractical.

“We are unlocking a world of autonomous machine-to-machine commerce,” Chok said. “In the UAE, we are seeing this play out in ‘Autonomous Procurement’, where an AI agent can monitor inventory, place orders with suppliers, and settle the payment in stablecoins without any human intervention in the process.”

The implication is broader than procurement automation. “This transforms AI into an independent economic actor capable of managing budget, revenue, and supply chains,” he said. “Relieving humans from these mundane or repetitive tasks so that human workers can focus on more critical issues.”

In effect, AI moves from decision support to economic execution.

Risk, guardrails, and “Know Your Agent”

Allowing autonomous systems to move money inevitably raises concerns about risk. Chok argues that traditional controls are poorly suited to the agentic era.

“Security in the agentic era isn’t about human permission…it’s about hard-coded regulations built into the financial rail,” he said.

Smart contracts allow governance to be enforced at transaction level. “By using smart-contract guardrails, we can implement ‘Know Your Agent’ (KYA) protocols that set fixed spending limits and merchant whitelists that an AI cannot override.”

Auditability is also native rather than retrospective. “Since every transaction is public and permanently recorded on the blockchain, we gain a level of real-time auditability that traditional banking simply cannot match.”

Instead of trusting systems, rules are enforced automatically. “We are replacing simply trusting a machine with certainty via cryptographic constraints,” Chok said. “Ensuring that if an agent attempts to move funds outside of its defined parameters, the hard-coded guardrails reject the transaction.”

Beyond AI, stablecoins are already reshaping how people are paid, particularly in the UAE’s highly international labour market.

“It is not surprising that such a high share of UAE freelancers prefer stablecoins,” Chok said. “The country is home to one of the world’s largest expatriate populations, with foreign workers comprising 88 per cent of residents.”

For globally mobile workers, traditional banking creates friction. “Many freelancers—be it local or international—are paid by overseas entities or regularly move money across borders.”

Stablecoins address that pain directly. “Low transaction fees, near-instant settlement, and stable value without the friction of traditional banking rails.”

He also points to regulatory pragmatism. “The UAE has also tailored its financial infrastructure to these realities,” Chok said. “It is one of the few jurisdictions where companies can design payroll systems that maintain fiat compliance for domestic staff while offering crypto flexibility for international hires.”

Contrary to the view that regulation slows innovation, Chok sees the UAE’s approach as deployment-driven.

“Regulatory clarity can either instil confidence in digital assets, or introduce friction through increased bureaucracy,” he said. “The UAE is taking a deployment-focused approach, providing comprehensive frameworks that allow users to adopt digital assets with certainty.”

The rollout of AE Coin illustrates this model. “Following its license approval by the Central Bank of UAE in 2024, the UAE’s first dirham-backed stablecoin was deliberately integrated into real-world payments by mid-2025,” Chok said.

Adoption has followed quickly. “The fuel and convenience retailer ADNOC Distribution now accepts the AE Coin across its 980 service stations.”

Rather than sitting alongside banking, AE Coin acts as connective tissue. “This regulatory framework positions AE Coin as a bridge between traditional banking and blockchain-based finance.”

The complexity of compliance increases sharply when AI enters the financial system.

“Companies often underestimate how compliance processes differ during the transition from human actors to AI agents,” Chok said. “While humans can be verified through standard procedures such as AML and KYC, the frameworks for vetting AI agents are less established.”

That gap is also an opportunity. “This market gap also points to an opportunity for companies to provide compliance solutions for vetting AI systems.”

Operating across borders adds another layer. “Both the global stablecoin and agentic AI landscapes are fragmented,” he said. “To navigate cross-jurisdictional operations, it is critical to secure active licenses and registrations and aligns with local regulations.”

Phased deployment matters. “Phased rollouts, supported by local risk audits and legal counsel, also help keep compliance and operational risks manageable across multiple markets.”

The next five years of agentic finance

Looking ahead, Chok expects AI agents to become embedded across financial activity.

“Over the next five years, we can expect AI agents to be embedded within institutional and retail transactions alike, using stablecoins as the key settlement asset.”

The role of AI will be highly contextual. “These AI agents could make payments on behalf of individuals or businesses, with AI models tailored to different user needs across the automated financial ecosystem.”

Financial inclusion is also part of the equation. “Stablecoins have a track record of improving financial access for the unbanked,” he said. “Combining them with AI tools can make this process even more efficient.”

The UAE, he believes, will play a defining role. “The UAE is poised to lead the growing convergence of stablecoins and agentic payments.”

Its advantage lies in scale and execution. “The region’s combination of sovereign-scale stablecoin initiatives and readiness for AI-driven payments create the network effects that many other jurisdictions lack.”

By focusing on deployment rather than theory, Chok sees the UAE setting a global template. “By homing in on its strengths in real-world adoption and innovation, the UAE serves as a blueprint for integrating AI, stablecoins, and traditional financial institutions on a global scale.”

Read: Mastercard’s Prakriti Singh on integrating stablecoins into mainstream commerce

Dubai and Abu Dhabi ended Q4 2025 with sustained rental growth and resilient occupier demand, underpinned by limited Grade A supply, ongoing economic diversification and a clear shift toward smaller, more flexible office formats, according to Savills’ Dubai and Abu Dhabi Office Market in Minutes, Q4 2025.

Dubai

In Dubai, average office rents climbed to around Dhs225 per sq ft, marking a 32.4 per cent year-on-year increase. Commercial property transactions reached Dhs12.4bn in December 2025 alone, reflecting continued confidence in the market.

Demand remains firmly skewed towards smaller office units, with 63 per cent of enquiries focused on spaces below 5,000 sq ft, highlighting occupiers’ preference for agile and right-sized workplaces.

Tenant decision-making has become increasingly pragmatic, with greater emphasis on tenure security and operational efficiency. This has been supported by RERA renewal protections and a positive macroeconomic backdrop. The Central Bank of the UAE is forecasting GDP growth of 5.2 per cent in 2026, while more than 53,000 new companies joined the Dubai Chamber of Commerce during the first nine months of 2025, reinforcing underlying demand for office space.

Rental performance varied across key submarkets. DIFC continued to command the highest rents at approximately Dhs537 per sq ft, while Business Bay and JLT recorded some of the strongest annual growth. Expo City also gained traction as an emerging office destination during Q4, supported by its campus-style layout and sustainability-led positioning.

Toby Hall, Head of Commercial Agency at Savills Middle East, said: “Dubai continues to demonstrate strong fundamentals, with occupiers becoming more strategic in how they approach space. While demand remains robust for Grade A offices, we’re seeing a clear shift towards smaller, more flexible layouts, alongside increased demand for flexibility, resilience, and future-proofed workplace strategies. As we head into 2026, prime locations with high-quality stock are expected to remain well supported, underpinned by ongoing business formation and regional investment activity.”

Abu Dhabi

In Abu Dhabi, the Grade A office market remained landlord-favourable, with average rents rising to approximately Dhs2,375 per sq m per annum (around Dhs221 per sq ft), representing a 22 per cent year-on-year increase. Growth was driven by sustained demand from financial services, IT and engineering occupiers.

Prime CBD rents increased to around Dhs2,750 per sq m (approximately Dhs256 per sq ft), up 26 per cent annually. Demand for micro-offices and flexible layouts also continued to strengthen, as occupiers prioritised high-quality, ready-to-occupy space.

Harry Ransom, Head of Commercial, Abu Dhabi at Savills Middle East, added: “Abu Dhabi’s office market continues to benefit from limited Grade A supply and sustained occupier interest, particularly within core business districts. We’re seeing growing demand for high-quality, ready-to-occupy space as companies enter the market more cautiously, favouring flexible layouts and smaller footprints. With a measured supply pipeline ahead, prime assets are expected to remain well supported through 2026.”

Outlook

Looking ahead to 2026, Savills expects both Dubai and Abu Dhabi to move toward more selective opportunities as new supply enters the market. Prime assets in established locations are forecast to remain well supported, driven by continued business formation and sustained regional investment activity.

The links to the reports are here: Dubai Office Market Report – Q4 2025 and Abu Dhabi Office Market Report – Q4 2025

Etihad Rail has unveiled a nationwide awareness campaign aimed at encouraging logistics providers, manufacturers, and heavy industries to move long-haul freight from road networks to rail.

The initiative arrives as the UAE’s industrial and logistics sectors enter a new growth phase, intensifying pressure on highways, delivery reliability, and operational costs.

Read more-Etihad Rail’s details revealed: 7 new stations announced

The campaign emphasises that rail is not merely an alternative transport option in principle but a practical, scalable, and proven solution already operating across the UAE.

Rail network offers scale and predictability

Etihad Rail’s freight network spans nearly 900 kilometres, directly connecting ports, industrial zones, and logistics hubs. The network is designed to transport bulk and high-volume cargo on fixed schedules along dedicated corridors, offering a level of predictability that road-based logistics increasingly struggles to match.

Each freight train can carry the equivalent of up to 300 heavy trucks, reducing congestion on key routes while improving certainty for manufacturers operating under tight production timelines.

Omar Alsebeyi, Acting CEO at Etihad Rail Freight, said: “For heavy industry, logistics is no longer just about speed, it’s also increasingly about certainty. Delays, congestion, and volatility carry real costs. Rail addresses those challenges at their root by offering scale, reliability, and predictability, day in and day out.”

Optimising costs and production planning

The campaign highlights rail freight’s potential to stabilize transport costs, reduce inventory buffers, and enable manufacturers to plan production with greater confidence. Etihad Rail stressed that the initiative does not aim to replace road freight but to rebalance the logistics system for greater efficiency.

“Road freight remains essential, particularly for last-mile delivery,” added Alsebeyi. “Rail removes long-haul and bulk movements from roads, easing congestion and freeing trucks to operate where they are most effective. It’s about making the entire system work better.”

Industry-focused awareness campaign

The campaign will be rolled out across trade media, industry forums, and digital platforms. It will feature case studies showcasing how rail integration has improved efficiency for companies in sectors such as construction materials, petrochemicals, metals, and containerised cargo.

The initiative also aligns with broader national priorities, including strengthening supply-chain resilience, enhancing industrial competitiveness, and future-proofing logistics infrastructure as trade volumes continue to rise.

“The UAE has invested in a national rail network designed to support growth for decades, not quarters,” said Alsebeyi. “This campaign ensures industry fully benefits from that investment. Rail freight is operational, reliable, and ready to scale. Now is the time to use it and reap the benefits.”

Strategic advantage for early adopters

As industrial output continues to expand, Etihad Rail expects early adopters of rail freight to gain a strategic advantage, including lower long-term costs, improved reliability, and the ability to scale operations without adding strain to already-busy road networks.

By offering a predictable, high-capacity alternative to road transport, Etihad Rail is positioning the UAE’s freight sector for sustainable growth while tackling one of the nation’s most pressing logistical challenges: congestion.

US investigators are examining whether specific crypto platforms have facilitated sanctions evasion by Iranian officials, a blockchain researcher told Reuters, as cryptocurrency activity booms in the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s crypto transaction volumes hit an estimated $8-10bn last year as both state-linked groups and retail investors have turned to digital currencies, according to estimates from TRM Labs and Chainalysis.

The US Treasury is now looking at whether crypto platforms have enabled state-linked players to evade sanctions when seeking to move money abroad, access hard currency or procure goods, said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at US-based blockchain analysis company TRM Labs, who said he had direct knowledge of the Treasury’s concerns.

A Treasury spokesperson referred Reuters to a September statement announcing measures the department was taking against “shadow banking” networks supporting Iran, including those it said used crypto to skirt sanctions.

Redbord did not identify any cryptocurrency platforms being probed or where they were based.

TRM Labs estimates there was around $10bn of crypto activity in Iran last year, against $11.4bn in 2024. Chainalysis, another US-based blockchain analysis company, said Iranian wallets received a record $7.8bn in 2025, up from $7.4bn in 2024 and $3.17bn in 2023.

Iran’s mission at the United Nations did not respond to emailed requests for comment for this article.

Cryptocurrencies remain a small part of the global financial system, but their use is expected to grow in emerging markets with weak currencies, the International Monetary Fund has said. Iran has been effectively severed from the dollar-based system and has seen a rapid devaluation of its rial currency. Oil revenues remain by far its largest source of foreign currency, hitting $53bn in 2023, according to the latest estimates from the US government’s Energy Information Administration.

“The harder one squeezes the Iranian economy, the more one better be ready to deal with the consequences, one of which is the expanding use of crypto,” said Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security at UK think-tank the Royal United Services Institute.

Iran has also faced a series of crises over the past year, including the 12-day war with Israel as well as American strikes on its nuclear facilities. A recent wave of anti-government protests and the Tehran government’s deadly crackdown have prompted threats of further military action from US President Donald Trump as well as fresh scrutiny of Iranian finances.

Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran last month, including on 18 people it accused of being part of shadow-banking networks of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions.

Iran’s revolutionary guards

Crypto wallet addresses are pseudonymous – recorded on the blockchain as a string of letters and numbers – making it difficult to establish who is behind transactions or their locations. Researchers estimate crypto activity using data sources including web traffic and wallet addresses identified by countries including the US and Israel as linked to sanctioned entities.

Gaining a complete picture of Iran’s crypto usage is near-impossible, the researchers said. Indeed, estimates of the split between state-linked and retail volumes vary significantly.

Chainalysis estimates that 50 per cent of Iran’s volumes last year were linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful political, military and economic force with close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

By contrast, TRM Labs estimates that 95 per cent of Iran-linked flows come from retail investors. Still, the company says it has identified more than 5,000 addresses it labels as IRGC-linked and estimates the Guards have moved $3bn worth of crypto since 2023.

British blockchain research company Elliptic said last month that the Central Bank of Iran, which like the IRGC is subject to international economic sanctions, had acquired at least $507m worth of the stablecoin USDT in 2025, in what Elliptic called a “sophisticated strategy to bypass the global banking system.”

Iran’s UN mission didn’t respond to questions on the IRGC’s or the central bank’s alleged use of crypto. Reuters couldn’t independently verify the findings of Elliptic and other blockchain researchers.

Tether, which issues USDT, said it maintained a “zero-tolerance policy toward the criminal use of our tokens”, and that it worked closely with law enforcement agencies to identify and freeze assets linked to illegal activity.

Andrew Fierman, Chainalysis’ head of national security intelligence, said that when a crypto wallet is publicly identified or sanctioned, owners can easily create new ones to use instead, complicating the task of US authorities.

RUSI’s Keatinge said the scale of the challenge facing US authorities was enormous.

“It requires significant resources to do the kind of blockchain tracing and so on, to issue the sanctions,” he added. “It’s the ultimate high-speed whack-a-mole game.”

15 million crypto users in Iran

Ordinary Iranians, meanwhile, may be buying crypto because of the rapid rial devaluation, the researchers told Reuters. Crypto activity rose sharply during bouts of social and geopolitical instability last year including during the recent protests, until the government blocked the internet on January 8, the analysts added, citing activity on Iranian exchanges.

Nobitex, the largest of Iran’s crypto exchanges, told Reuters that about 15 million people in Iran had some exposure or used crypto assets, based on industry estimates. It said it had 11 million customers, with the majority of activity from retail and smaller investors. “For many users, crypto primarily functions as a store of value in response to the continued depreciation of the local currency,“ Nobitex said in an email.

Iranians can move money off local exchanges to wallets and platforms located elsewhere, blockchain researchers and finance experts say.

Singapore-based blockchain researchers Nansen said some Iranians had pulled funds from Nobitex in 2025, with balances of major cryptocurrencies having declined sharply from a mid-year peak. Nobitex was hit by an anti-Iranian hacking group in June last year.

Nansen said it had identified hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crypto which were transferred from Nobitex to international cryptocurrency exchanges.

“These funds did not simply leave crypto. Instead, they increasingly moved to international exchanges,” said analyst Nicolai Sondergaard. “Overall, the data suggests crypto in Iran acted as a slow, structural exit route throughout 2025.”

Nobitex said some customers may use crypto to transfer funds internationally, but it did not track the destination or purpose of such transactions. The exchange said it safeguards user assets by robust monitoring of activity, including checks to identify potentially suspicious transactions. It said it was understandable that some users may have had concerns regarding asset safety following the June hack.

“In many cases, users transfer assets to self-custodied wallets (not other international exchanges) as a precautionary measure, allowing them time to assess the situation and determine whether to redeposit funds at a later time,” Nobitex added.

Read: Oil slumps nearly 5% as Trump signals Iran de-escalation

Dubai’s super-fast underground transport dream is edging closer to reality.

Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Tuesday, Mattar Al Tayer, director general and chairman of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said construction on the Musk-backed Dubai Loop project would begin “immediately”, according to a news flash from Reuters.

Developed with The Boring Company, the project will deliver an underground transport network spanning 24 kilometres across the city, at a total cost of nearly Dhs2.5bn.

“The project covers 24 kilometres in Dubai, with a total cost of nearly Dhs2.5bn,” Al Tayer said.

“The first phase will start immediately, with Dhs600m allocated to six kilometres,” he added.

According to Al Tayer, the initial phase is expected to be completed within two years.

The Dubai Loop is designed as an underground electric transport system aimed at easing congestion along some of the emirate’s busiest corridors. The project is being developed with the tunnelling company founded by Elon Musk, which specialises in underground transport infrastructure.

The announcement revives Dubai’s long-standing ambition to pioneer ultra-fast transport solutions, following nearly a decade of experimentation with hyperloop-style concepts.

In 2016, Dubai positioned itself as one of the earliest global advocates of hyperloop technology, unveiling proposals that promised passenger speeds of more than 1,000 km/h. Early studies included a proposed Dubai–Abu Dhabi route that aimed to cut travel time between the two cities to around 12 minutes.

Those plans, however, didn’t move beyond pilot and feasibility stages. Hyperloop One, one of the most prominent companies involved in early projects, ceased operations in 2023, effectively ending the first wave of global hyperloop experimentation.

Unlike those earlier proposals, Dubai Loop adopts a more incremental and deliverable model. Rather than vacuum-sealed tubes and extreme speeds, the system relies on underground tunnels transporting electric vehicles — a concept already deployed by The Boring Company in Las Vegas.

If completed as planned, Dubai Loop would mark the first international deployment of Musk’s Loop system outside the US and one of the clearest signs yet of Dubai translating long-held transport ambition into concrete infrastructure.