Ctrl Alt is the tokenisation partner of the project described here, through its Dubai entity Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC, so this is a participant's account. What other parties do is taken from their own publications, linked where used. The guide is part of Ctrl Alt Insights.
Key takeaways
- Dubai Land Department launched the Real Estate Tokenization Project on 24 May 2025 and announced the Property Token Ownership Certificate on 29 May 2025.
- The pilot stage tokenised ten properties with a combined listing valuation of AED 18.5 million.
- Phase two opened controlled resale on 20 February 2026, when about 7.8 million tokens became eligible.
- Each holding is two linked tokens on the XRP Ledger: an ownership token and an asset-referenced virtual asset (ARVA) that VARA regulates.
- The issuer controls the wallets, and the Department's land registry remains the main record of ownership.
- Ctrl Alt's VARA licence (VL/25/05/002) covers Qualified and Institutional Investors only; a separately licensed platform deals with investors.
UK United Kingdom: Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
AE Dubai (VARA): Virtual Assets may lose their value in full or in part, and are subject to extreme volatility. The owner or investor in a Virtual Asset can lose all the money or other value they invest, and does not benefit from any form of financial protection.
ARVA Dubai property tokens: an asset-referenced virtual asset such as the tokens described in this guide is not covered by any investor protection or deposit guarantee schemes.
Ctrl Alt does not provide investment advice or recommendations. This page is for information only and is not investment advice.
What the Dubai Land Department project is
The Real Estate Tokenization Project is Dubai Land Department's programme for issuing registered Dubai property as fractional tokens, launched on . The Department is Dubai's land registry, so the body that records who owns a property also runs the programme that tokenises it. Ctrl Alt's launch announcement places the project under the Department's Real Estate Evolution Space Initiative (REES) and names the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the Dubai Future Foundation and Prypco as partners. For the asset-agnostic background, start with what real-world asset tokenisation is.
Launch: 24 May 2025
The project launched on 24 May 2025 with the XRP Ledger selected as its ledger and Ctrl Alt as tokenisation partner, according to Ctrl Alt's launch announcement. VARA's public register shows two licences issued that day: VL/25/05/002 to Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC and VL/25/05/001 to Prypco FZE. Each entry carries a condition that ties the licence to the tokenisation of asset-referenced virtual assets authorised by the Department, and each names two tokens, TRE-1110 and TRE-A104.
The Property Token Ownership Certificate: 29 May 2025
Dubai Land Department announced the Property Token Ownership Certificate on , five days after launch. The Department's announcement says the certificate followed the sale of the first tokenised project on the Prypco Mint platform within one day. It also says the Department developed the project with VARA, the Central Bank of the UAE and the Dubai Future Foundation through the Real Estate Sandbox, and that it is executed through Prypco Mint.
224 investors of 44 nationalities, with an average investment of AED 10,714.
The first project in figures, as reported by Dubai Land Department on 29 May 2025The Department adds that 70% of those investors were entering Dubai's property market for the first time. These are its figures for one property at one date, not a measure of later demand.
Phase two and secondary trading: 20 February 2026
Phase two began on and added controlled secondary market trading, according to Ctrl Alt's phase-two announcement. Three days earlier, on , Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC published whitepapers for the tokens, including TRE-1110 and TRE-A104. They introduce a second token linked to each existing ownership token, and they describe the project as still in a pilot phase run in a controlled environment.
Who does what
Seven organisations and one public ledger share the work: a registry, a regulator, a distribution platform, an issuer, a custody technology provider and two government collaborators. The table gives each role as described by the source linked in its row. Ctrl Alt's part sits with Ctrl Alt's Dubai entity and the wider group.
| Party | Role and source |
|---|---|
| Dubai Land Department | Land registry. Developed the project, verifies and registers ownership, registers token holders as fractional owners and issues the Property Token Ownership Certificate. |
| VARA | Regulator of virtual assets in Dubai outside the Dubai International Financial Centre. Licenses the issuer and the distributor, and its issuance rules govern asset-referenced virtual assets, the category the tokens fall in. |
| Prypco Mint (Prypco FZE) | The platform through which, the Department says, the project is executed. Onboards investors, distributes the tokens, runs resale and appoints the property manager. VARA licence VL/25/05/001 for Broker-Dealer Services. |
| Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC | Tokenisation partner and issuer. Mints and burns the tokens and operates the custodial wallets. VARA VASP Licence VL/25/05/002 for Broker-Dealer Services and Category 1 VA Issuance, for Qualified and Institutional Investors. |
| Ripple | Custody technology. The issuer's wallets use hardware security module technology from Ripple Custody under an outsourcing agreement. Ripple announced the partnership on 16 July 2025. |
| XRP Ledger | The public ledger on which the tokens are recorded. |
| Dubai Future Foundation; Central Bank of the UAE | Collaborators named by the Department in developing the project through the Real Estate Sandbox. |
Roles as described in the sources named in each row. Licence numbers are those shown on the VARA public register.
What each permission covers, and what it does not, is set out under VARA licence VL/25/05/002 on the licences page.
How a property becomes a token, step by step
A property becomes a token in five stages: registration, issuance, recording on the ledger, registration of holders and controlled resale. The figure shows the order and which record applies at each stage, and the list gives the source for each one. The glossary defines asset-referenced virtual asset and related terms; four of them recur below.
- Asset-referenced virtual asset (ARVA): VARA's category for a virtual asset that represents, or purports to represent, a real-world asset or income from it.
- Ownership token: the token that stands for a fraction of the property, one token for each 0.0001 square metres.
- Custodial wallet: a ledger account whose keys are held by a service provider, here the issuer, and not by the investor.
- Category 1 VA Issuance: the licensed activity that covers issuing an ARVA in Dubai.
- A registered property. Each pair of tokens refers to one freehold unit registered with the Department, identified in its whitepaper by unit number, floor and building. The property is listed on the distributor's platform with a funding target, and tokenisation starts only when that target is met in full.
- Issuance of two linked tokens. Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC mints an ownership token on the Department's behalf and an ARVA that carries the governance and economic rights. The number of tokens follows from the floor area. Under VARA's ARVA issuance rules, issuing an ARVA is a Category 1 VA Issuance and each ARVA needs VARA's approval before it is issued.
- Recording on the XRP Ledger. Both tokens are minted to the XRP Ledger and held in custodial wallets that the issuer hosts and controls, using Ripple Custody technology. The issuer keeps the mapping between wallet addresses and investors. Tokens are frozen at the holder's address once delivered and are released only for an approved transfer.
- Registration of holders. The Department registers token holders as fractional owners in its own records and issues the Property Token Ownership Certificate. The issuer checks that each on-chain transfer matches the Department's record. Where it does not, transfers of the affected tokens are suspended until the two are reconciled.
- Controlled resale. Since 20 February 2026 holders can sell to other onboarded holders on the distributor's platform. Tokens cannot leave the issuer's ecosystem or move to a private wallet.
Three things are not published in the Department's announcement or the whitepapers: the technical interface between the ledger and the registry, the time each stage takes, and the XRP Ledger token standard used.
These numbers are invented to show the arithmetic. They do not describe a real listing or an offer. Take a 100 square metre apartment listed at AED 2,000,000. At one token for each 0.0001 square metres, the issuer mints 1,000,000 ownership tokens and 1,000,000 linked ARVAs, so one pair corresponds to AED 2.00 at listing. A holder of 5,000 pairs is recorded against 0.5 square metres, which is 0.5% of the property and AED 10,000 at the listing valuation.
If a later valuation put the property at AED 2,200,000, the reference value of a pair would be AED 2.20, and the 15% resale band described below would run from AED 1.87 to AED 2.53. Rent, fees and taxes are left out. The whitepaper for TRE-1110 uses the same method: 130.88 square metres, 1,308,800 tokens and a listing price of AED 2,400,000, or about AED 1.83 a token.
What a token holder receives
A holder receives two linked tokens, an entry in the Department's records as a fractional owner and the Property Token Ownership Certificate, according to the issuer's whitepapers of 17 February 2026 and the Department's announcement. The whitepapers say that VARA was notified of them before issuance and has not verified their content, so what follows is the issuer's description and not a regulator's.
The certificate, in the Department's words
The Department calls the document a Property Token Ownership Certificate and describes it as the first of its kind. Its announcement of 29 May 2025 does not set out the certificate's legal effect, its form or where a holder sees it, so this guide does not call it a title deed. The whitepapers add two practical points. An investor must have registered for the Dubai REST app before onboarding, and the ownership token stays visible through the distributor's app or website and the Department's own portal.
What the issuer's whitepaper says
The whitepaper describes a pair of tokens that cannot exist, trade or move separately. The ownership token, which it calls a "tokenized title deed", is registered on the Department's blockchain-integrated ownership ledger. The linked ARVA carries the governance and economic rights, including a share of rental income after costs, which is not guaranteed. If an on-chain transfer does not produce a matching registry record, the issuer suspends transfers until it has reconciled them with the Department. If the ledger fails, the land registry remains the main record and tokens can be re-minted. Holders acquire no contractual claims against the issuer beyond those the whitepaper sets out.
- Legal nature
- Each token pair represents a direct fractional right of ownership in the named Dubai property, with the holder registered by Dubai Land Department as a fractional owner.
- Custody
- Tokens are held in custodial wallets hosted and controlled by the issuer, Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC, using hardware security module technology from Ripple Custody under an outsourcing agreement. Private wallets are not supported. Ownership of the property is recorded at the Department's land registry. The whitepapers name no separate third-party custodian.
- Exit
- Resale to other onboarded holders on the distributor's platform only (Prypco FZE, VARA licence VL/25/05/001), subject to demand and to the distributor's terms, including any lock-in. Redemption for a traditional title deed needs every holder's agreement and the Department's approval. There is no redemption at par by the issuer.
- Audit cadence
- VARA's ARVA rules require a monthly website disclosure of the ARVAs in circulation and an independent audit every six months. The whitepapers name no auditor and no place of publication.
- Investor classes
- The VARA register limits Ctrl Alt's own services to Qualified and Institutional Investors. The whitepapers name retail clients and qualified investors as the tokens' target market through the licensed distributor, which acts under its own licence.
- Compensation
- The whitepapers list the compensation scheme as none. An ARVA is not covered by any investor protection or deposit guarantee schemes.
What is not published
Three things a careful reader would look for are missing from the sources opened for this guide. No auditor of the tokens is named. The table of ten tokens on Ctrl Alt's UAE entity page gives no as-of date for its circulation figures. And the distributor's lock-in terms are not set out, because the whitepaper's sentence on a three-month lock-in is internally inconsistent.
The pilot in numbers
The pilot stage tokenised ten properties with a combined listing valuation of AED 18.5 million, which Ctrl Alt's phase-two announcement of 20 February 2026 gives as more than $5 million. The same announcement says approximately 7.8 million tokens issued during the pilot became eligible for resale. Both figures are company-reported and not independently verified.
Listing valuations are the values at the point each property was listed on the platform, not current market prices. The token-by-token figures (token ID, tokens in circulation and listing valuation) are kept on the page for the real estate tokenisation platform for registries and asset owners and are not repeated here. Those ten circulation figures carry no as-of date and, by our addition, come to about 8.76 million tokens, more than the 7.8 million in the announcement, which does not list the tokens it counts. VARA's register condition names two of the ten, TRE-1110 and TRE-A104.
The rules in brief
VARA regulates the property tokens as asset-referenced virtual assets, and issuing one is a licensed Category 1 VA Issuance under Annex 2 of its Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook. Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC holds that permission under VASP Licence VL/25/05/002, and its register entry limits its services to Qualified and Institutional Investors. The issuance, disclosure, audit, capital and marketing rules are set out once, in the Dubai section of our guide to how the UK and UAE regulate tokenisation.
Ledger and custody
The tokens are recorded on the XRP Ledger, a public ledger selected at launch on 24 May 2025, while the Department's land registry stays the record of ownership. The design puts a public transfer record under a government registry: the ledger shows that a token moved, and the registry records who owns the property. The whitepapers make the order explicit, because a ledger outage or a change of chain would leave the registry record in place.
Custody follows the same logic of control. A partnership announced on 16 July 2025 has Ctrl Alt using Ripple's institutional custody technology for the project. The whitepapers describe issuer-hosted custodial wallets built on hardware security module technology from Ripple Custody, with no support for private wallets at this stage. Transfers are restricted through features built into the ledger and not through smart contracts; the XRP Ledger's own documentation explains how an issuer can freeze the tokens it issues.
Ctrl Alt also says it helped design an XRP Ledger amendment, XLS-68d, with Ripple and the ledger's developer community. The Sponsored Fees and Reserves specification lets a sponsor pay transaction fees and reserve requirements for another account, so an end user does not have to fund them. The sources opened for this guide do not say whether the project uses it. Certification and safeguarding facts for the wider group are on the page for custody and security evidence.
Buying, holding and reselling: what is and is not public
Ctrl Alt's Dubai entity may serve only Qualified and Institutional Investors, and investors reach the project through the platform the Department names, Prypco Mint. The two VARA register entries draw the line: the condition on Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC's licence covers Qualified and Institutional Investors, and the condition on Prypco FZE's covers Retail and Qualified Investors. VARA's Marketing Regulations bar a call to buy in the marketing of a virtual asset, and nothing on this page is an invitation to buy tokens.
Resale has been possible since phase two opened on 20 February 2026. The whitepapers of 17 February 2026 describe the mechanics:
- Sales take place only between onboarded holders on the distributor's platform.
- The seller sets a price up to 15% above or below a valuation set quarterly by an independent valuer or by a Department smart valuation.
- Sale proceeds reach the seller's nominated account within three to four working days, subject to demand.
- Redemption for a traditional title deed needs the agreement of every token holder and the Department's approval, after which both tokens are burned.
The whitepapers also record the distributor's terms for its own clients: a minimum of AED 2,000 and a maximum of 20% of the property value for each investor, a 24-hour cancellation window, and investors who are typically UAE residents. Holders pay fees to the distributor under its terms and none to the issuer. The length of any lock-in, the distributor's fee schedule and trading volumes since February 2026 are not in the sources opened for this guide.
Registry-backed tokens versus SPV shares versus a REIT
The three structures differ first in what the investor owns: a registered fraction of one property, a share in a company that owns it, or a unit in a fund that owns many. The table compares them on six points and does not compare returns. The columns for special purpose vehicle (SPV) shares and for a real estate investment trust (REIT) are general descriptions; a real vehicle depends on its own documents and jurisdiction.
| Criterion | Registry-backed tokens (Dubai project) | SPV shares | REIT |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is owned | A fraction of one named property, with the holder registered by the Department | Shares in a company that holds title; the investor owns the company stake, not the property | Units or shares in a fund that owns a portfolio |
| Where it is recorded | The land registry, mirrored by tokens on the XRP Ledger | The company's share register; the land registry shows the company | The fund's register or a securities depository |
| How it transfers | Sale to another onboarded holder on one platform, reconciled with the registry | Share transfer under the company's articles, often with board or platform approval | Sale on an exchange if listed; otherwise under the fund's rules |
| Who can hold it | Clients onboarded by the licensed distributor | Set by the offer's exemption or the platform's rules | Broad if listed; otherwise set by the fund's rules |
| Regulator | VARA for the tokens; the Department for the registry | The securities regulator where the shares are offered | The fund and listing regulators of its home market |
| Typical drawbacks | Pilot scale, one resale venue, lock-in terms, no private wallets | No direct title; depends on the vehicle's governance; slow share sales | No stake in a chosen property; unit price can move away from asset value |
The first column follows the TRE-1110 and TRE-A104 whitepapers. The other two are general descriptions, not statements about any named vehicle.
The issuance and registrar work is not specific to property; see tokenising other asset classes on the same platform.
Risks specific to tokenised property
A holder can lose some or all of the money invested, and six risks are specific to this structure. Each one is drawn from the whitepapers' own risk statements or from what the sources leave unsaid.
- Legal mechanism. A holder's position rests on the Department's registration and on the issuer's whitepaper. The announcement opened for this guide does not publish the legal instrument behind the certificate. Disputes over the whitepaper fall under the law of the Dubai International Financial Centre.
- Liquidity. Resale is possible on one platform only, between onboarded holders, subject to demand and to lock-in terms. The whitepapers describe real estate as a semi-liquid asset class.
- Valuation. Published values are listing valuations. A later sale price is set by the seller inside a band around a periodic valuation and may be lower than the price paid.
- Platform and custody dependency. The issuer controls the wallets, one distributor runs the marketplace and one provider supplies the custody technology. A holder cannot move tokens anywhere else.
- Regulatory change. The whitepapers describe a pilot in a controlled environment, and the licence conditions on the VARA register name specific tokens. Rules, conditions and eligibility can change.
- Concentration. Each pair of tokens refers to a single property, and the pilot covers ten. Rental income depends on that property's tenant and costs and is not guaranteed. The whitepapers add that holders may be asked for more capital for material repairs.
The group-wide statement is the risk disclosure for tokenised assets.
What other registries and asset owners can take from Dubai
Four design choices in the Dubai project carry over to other registries, and each can be dated or sourced from the sections above. They are a participant's observations, not a template for every jurisdiction.
- Registry first. The land registry stays the record of ownership and the ledger mirrors it. A transfer that does not match the registry is suspended until it does.
- Regulator in the room. VARA licensed the issuer and the distributor on the launch date, 24 May 2025, with conditions written for this project.
- A licensed issuer. Issuance is a regulated activity in its own right, separate from distribution, and each token has a published whitepaper.
- A staged secondary market. Resale opened about nine months after launch, on one platform, between onboarded holders and inside a price band.
Frequently asked questions
Five questions about the project, answered from the sources above. Wider questions on process, licences and eligibility are on the tokenisation FAQ page.
Is real estate tokenisation legal in Dubai?
Yes. Dubai Land Department runs its own Real Estate Tokenization Project, and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) regulates the tokens as asset-referenced virtual assets, which only a licensed Category 1 issuer may issue. That covers the licensed, registry-backed route and not every token that claims to represent property. The rules are set out in our guide to how the UK and UAE regulate tokenisation.
Do token holders get a title deed?
Not a traditional one. According to the issuer's whitepapers of 17 February 2026, Dubai Land Department registers each holder as a fractional owner, and the ownership token is what the whitepaper calls a "tokenized title deed". The Department describes the document it launched as a Property Token Ownership Certificate. A traditional title deed is available only if every holder agrees and the Department approves.
Which blockchain does the Dubai Land Department project use?
The XRP Ledger. Ctrl Alt's launch announcement of 24 May 2025 names it as the ledger selected for the project, and the token whitepapers confirm that the tokens are issued there. Tokens sit in custodial wallets controlled by the issuer, built on Ripple Custody technology, and cannot move to private wallets. The Department's land registry remains the main record of ownership.
Can tokens be resold?
Yes, within limits. Since phase two began on 20 February 2026, holders can sell to other onboarded holders on the distributor's platform, subject to demand and to the platform's lock-in terms. The whitepapers say the seller sets a price within 15% of a periodic valuation and receives the proceeds in three to four working days. Tokens cannot be traded on open markets.
Who can invest through Ctrl Alt?
Only Qualified and Institutional Investors. That is the condition on the VARA licence of Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC (VL/25/05/002), and Ctrl Alt's wider services are for professional or institutional investors. The investor-facing platform for the Dubai Land Department project is Prypco Mint, which holds its own VARA licence. This page is information for institutions and is not an invitation to buy tokens.
Sources
Registry, regulator and issuer documents opened for this guide. Ctrl Alt's own announcements are named and dated in the text. The whitepapers carry a notice against reproduction, so they are paraphrased and linked, not quoted at length.
- Dubai Land Department, announcement of the Property Token Ownership Certificate, 29 May 2025, accessed .
- Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, public register entry for Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC (VL/25/05/002), accessed .
- Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook, Annex 2: Asset-Referenced Virtual Assets Issuance Rules, accessed .
- Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, Regulations on the Marketing of Virtual Assets and Related Activities 2024, accessed .
- Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC, ARVA whitepaper for token TRE-1110 (PDF), published 17 February 2026, accessed .
- Ctrl Alt Solutions DMCC, ARVA whitepaper for token TRE-A104 (PDF), published 17 February 2026, accessed .