Hello, its The ReFi Brief. Learn how real estate is going digital and what that means for you.

• The Big Read: Settlemint CEO on Tokenisation

• UK formally recognises digital assets as property

• Ondo Finance cleared by SEC after multi-year review

• Real Finance Raises $29M to Build Tokenization Infrastructure

This week frames tokenization as operating infrastructure, not a future bet. A national registry is already live, regulators are closing cases and clarifying property rights, and capital is flowing into backend rails.

THE BIG READ

Adam Popat on why tokenisation is moving from talk to infrastructure

A few weeks back I covered the story on Saudi Arabia announcing it had become the first country to deploy national-scale blockchain infrastructure for real estate registration and fractional ownership.

It was a Big Read and as I went over it, it felt like a pivotal moment. A live, sovereign-backed system for tokenizing property titles at scale.

So when the opportunity came up to speak with him, it was the perfect full circle. Special thanks to Lara Abdulmalak for making this possible.

What follows is insight from a man behind tokenised real estate’s biggest development to date. Enjoy.

First off, who is Adam Popat?

Adam brings 20 years of experience in finance, investment, and M&A. Before joining Settlemint, he spent a decade at Standard Chartered leading the bank’s adoption of digital assets and blockchain.

He co-led all fund, investment, and M&A activities for SC Ventures, and served as CFO of Standard Chartered Vietnam. He has lived and worked in seven countries and speaks four languages.

He took over as CEO in June 2025 and has relocated to Dubai. He says he wishes he had done so sooner. That move reflects where Settlemint sees its growth: the Middle East.

When Adam talks about tokenisation, his enthusiasm is clear. But it is grounded in specifics, not slogans.

What is Settlemint?

Settlemint is an enterprise blockchain infrastructure company founded in Belgium in 2016 by Matthew Van Niekerk and Roderik van der Veer.

The idea was simple: if blockchain is going to reshape how assets are recorded, transferred, and managed, institutions will need rails that fit inside regulation, not tools that try to bypass it.

Nine years and over 100 enterprise implementations later, Settlemint operates a platform that abstracts away the complexity of blockchain for banks, corporates, and governments.

Their Asset Tokenization Kit provides pre-built smart contracts, a ready-to-deploy front end, and compliance controls including whitelisted addresses, transaction limits, and integrated KYC/AML workflows.

Adam was direct about what separates Settlemint from the noise: a decade of building and testing. Many platforms, he noted, tokenize badly. Settlemint’s infrastructure has been pressure-tested at institutional scale.

What does the Saudi deal actually mean?

Saudi Arabia’s Real Estate Registry (RER), under the Real Estate General Authority (REGA), now runs on a hybrid architecture that combines the national registry with Settlemint’s blockchain orchestration and smart-contract layer.

The platform supports end-to-end digital transactions: listing, due diligence, valuation, escrow-linked payments, and ownership transfer.

The first tokenization of a title deed has already been executed and traded between the National Housing Company and institutional counterparties.

This is not a sandbox experiment. Per Adam: “This is not just a proof-of-concept. It is a national digital market infrastructure.”

The next phases will introduce a national tokenized marketplace for buying, selling, and fractional investment, followed by an open API framework that allows PropTech firms, banks, and developers to build services on top of RER’s infrastructure.

For developers and property owners, the implications are concrete. Fractional ownership lowers minimum ticket sizes for investors. Foreign capital gains a regulated pathway into Saudi real estate.

And the infrastructure is designed to support tokenized lending, digital escrow, and cross-border property transactions.

Is there a tokenisation infrastructure race? (And is MENA leading)

I quoted Larry Fink’s warning and asked Adam if tokenisation is becoming a race. He said yes.

Fink put it bluntly: “If we don’t spend enough faster on digitization and tokenization, other countries will beat us.” He made the point on stage at the New York Times DealBook Summit in Manhattan on December 3, 2025.

Adam’s take was that Saudi is already running faster because the goal is national, not departmental. 

Vision 2030 turns “digitisation” into an execution mandate, which is why agencies like the Real Estate General Authority (REGA) and the Real Estate Registry (RER) can move from concept to live infrastructure, then keep iterating once it is in production.

He then widened the lens. Regulatory alignment, political will, and capital are showing up in the same place, at the same time, across parts of MENA. That mix is what makes the region feel like it is leading the infrastructure race, not just talking about it.

Can developing markets catch the train?

Adam has worked in Kenya and Vietnam. He observed a growth mindset in emerging markets that is sometimes absent in more established financial centres.

For Africa specifically, he sees tokenisation as a lever for transparency and capital access.

Blockchain creates immutable records. It makes flows of money visible. For infrastructure development, which often suffers from opaque funding and fragmented ownership records, this matters.

We discussed diaspora funding. Stablecoins can facilitate remittance flows into tokenized real estate structures. The mechanics exist. What is needed is the regulatory and platform infrastructure to connect them.

If that infrastructure is built, African developers could access capital from their diaspora at lower friction and lower cost than traditional channels allow.

What should you do now?

Adam’s message to real estate developers and owners was direct: engage now to stay ahead.

You do not need to tokenize your next deal. But you do need to understand how this infrastructure works, which platforms are credible, and what regulatory frameworks apply in your jurisdiction.

On the surface, developments like the Saudi deal look like scattered projects. Underneath, they are visible signs of an architecture the globe’s financial system will run on. The robust engine has been built over years. It continues to be built.

And for those paying attention, the moment to engage is now.

TM

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^{The Premier Event for Real Estate Tokenization}

The Brief: Stake Real Estate Summit brings together the world’s leading real estate players and top blockchain companies to accelerate the adoption of onchain capital assets. As the flagship global gathering for tokenized real estate, it’s built for decision-makers driving innovation, forging partnerships, and executing real-world strategies that connect the built environment with the blockchain economy.

When: 28 April 2026, Dubai

Who is attending?

• Real Estate Developers & Institutional Owners

• Asset Managers, Funds & Institutional Investors

• Tokenization Platforms & Infrastructure Providers

• Blockchain, RWA & DeFi Ecosystem Leaders

The Stake Real Estate Summit is designed to spark meaningful connections and drive forward-looking partnerships whether you're exploring tokenization, bridging traditional and digital markets, or expanding your global footprint.

Register for an Early Bird ticket today

THE WEEK IN BRIEF

UK formally recognizes digital assets as property

^{Image Source: UK Law Commission}

The Brief: The UK’s Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 is now in force, legally recognising digital assets as personal property and removing a core legal ambiguity that constrained institutional tokenized real estate structures under English law, per the Law Commission and UK Government.

The Details:

• Digital assets are now a standalone category of property. Tokens no longer rely on contractual workarounds, strengthening ownership claims within tokenized SPVs governed by English law.

• Transfer finality is improved. Because a token is property, an on-chain transfer can legally constitute transfer of the property right itself, reducing reliance on parallel paper registers.

• Insolvency treatment is clarified. Tokens held in custody can be treated as client property rather than platform assets, supporting bankruptcy-remote deal structures.

• Collateral use is strengthened. Recognised property status improves enforceability when tokenized equity or debt is pledged in lending or recapitalisation structures.

What This Means: This is immediately relevant for UK developers and global funds using English law SPVs. It removes a key objection around insolvency and collateral enforceability.

_{GO ONCHAIN WITH LIBELIT}

Finance real estate projects with Libelit

The Brief: Libelit is an innovative lending platform, providing real estate developers with fast loans.

The Details:

• The traditional financing model for real estate development is fragmented, slow, and inefficient. Leaving both developers and investors frustrated.

  Fragmented: Sourced from multiple banks and private investors.

  Slow: Developers often wait six months or more to secure funding.

  Illiquid: Investors’ capital remains locked for years until the project is completed.

• Libelit provides a platform where construction developers can easily connect with investors, showcase their projects, and manage construction funds efficiently.

• By leveraging loan tokenisation, AI-assisted risk evaluation, and real-time investment progress reports, Libelit seeks to enhance efficiency, transparency, and connectivity between developers and investors.

Learn more about project financing with Libelit

Ondo Finance cleared by SEC after multi-year review

^{Image Source: The Crypto Times}

The Brief: The SEC has formally closed its multi-year investigation into Ondo Finance with no charges, validating its compliance-first approach to RWA tokenization under U.S. securities law and setting a rare regulatory benchmark for institutional issuance models, per Ondo disclosures.

The Details:

• Ondo issues tokens through conservative legal wrappers. Treasuries are LP interests in a Delaware fund under Reg D and 3(c)(7), while yield and equity exposure are structured as debt notes via bankruptcy-remote SPVs.

• Liquidity exists but remains permissioned. Investors can redeem at NAV, transfer between whitelisted wallets, or trade tokenized equities on Ondo’s controlled venues, which have processed over $2B in cumulative volume.

• Compliance is enforced in code. KYC, investor eligibility, resale restrictions, and Reg S seasoning periods are embedded directly into smart contract transfer logic.

• Reporting exceeds private-market norms. Ondo publishes daily NAV updates, uses independent fund administrators, and aligns on-chain supply with audited off-chain reports.

What This Means: This matters for developers considering U.S.-linked tokenization at institutional scale. Ondo shows regulators will tolerate automated issuance, redemptions, and secondary liquidity when exemptions are respected and technically enforced.

Real Finance raises $29M to build tokenization infrastructure

^{Image Source: VentureBurn}

The Brief: Real Finance has raised $29 million to expand its tokenization infrastructure focused on compliant issuance, governance automation, and institutional asset servicing, reinforcing investor demand for backend rails rather than retail-facing property token platforms, per company disclosures.

The Details:

• The raise targets infrastructure, not assets. Real Finance positions itself as a tooling and structuring layer rather than a marketplace promising liquidity or fractional demand.

• The platform emphasises compliant issuance. SPV structuring, investor eligibility controls, and transfer restrictions are designed to align with regulated capital markets.

• Secondary liquidity is treated cautiously. Transfers are permissioned and intended to integrate with regulated or private venues rather than open retail markets.

• The target user is institutional. The stack is built for developers, funds, and asset managers operating within formal regulatory frameworks.

What This Means: This matters for developers who want tokenization as operational plumbing, not a new sales channel. Real Finance reinforces the shift toward compliance-first infrastructure providers.

BRIEF X SIGNALS

 
🏦 @Injective_Hub: Pineapple Financial migrates $10B mortgage portfolio

🏠 @EstateProtocol: Crosses $11M in regulated tokenized properties on Arbitrum.

📈 @ns_dub: Manifest tokenizes $35T US home equity market via HEIs.

🤝 @Internxbt: IOPn partners with Gulf Land for Dubai luxury tokenization.

💼 @sagaciousfwesh: Tracks $1.25B in tokenized institutional funds like BUIDL.

EXPERT TAKEAWAY

Real Estate Access Feels Impossible: Tokenization Fixes This

Daniel Radwansky, Co-Founder of StegX, explains why real estate is such a complex asset class due to limited access to asset managers and their deal pipelines.

^{Filmed at the 2025 Stake Real Estate Summit}

See you in the next brief,

Tatenda