Zand’s Dirham Stablecoin Grew 4.88-Fold in 19 Days, to US$274.01 Million; on Ethereum, 98.96% Sits in Five Undivided Blocks

Zand’s bank-issued dirham stablecoin grew 4.88-fold in 19 days. AEDZ, issued by Zand Trust, a subsidiary of the CBUAE-licensed Zand Bank, went from AED 206.00 million (US$56.09 million) on September 17, 2026 to AED 1.01 billion (US$274.01 million) on October 6 across Ethereum and Solana, after holding at about AED 206 million since at least July 31. On Ethereum, about half of that supply, the new tokens arrived and stayed in a few undivided blocks. The timing matters beyond the UAE: on October 7 Tether signed a memorandum with the National Bank of Kazakhstan to study issuance models for a tenge-pegged stablecoin, one of several central banks weighing a national-currency token. AEDZ’s Ethereum leg shows one way such a coin can grow: through block-sized allocations that have not yet been divided.

Five issuance days took AEDZ from AED 206.00 million to AED 1.01 billion

The supply did not drift upward. It stepped. Zand launched AEDZ in November 2025 as a dirham token backed one-to-one by segregated reserves, and from at least July 31 it held about AED 206 million, almost all of it on Solana. Then, on September 18, 21, 23 and 25, and again on October 6, new supply was issued on both chains on the same days, and no material supply was issued in between. Solana rose from AED 201.00 million to AED 496.78 million. Ethereum, a minority leg holding AED 5.00 million on September 17, rose to AED 509.52 million and overtook Solana, taking its share of the two-chain total from 2.43% to 50.63%.

On Ethereum, every new block sits whole in a single wallet

The transfer record on Ethereum, which holds 50.63% of supply, shows how that supply was distributed. Each of the five large mints went to the same issuance address. The four September mints, AED 157.04 million on September 18, AED 79.27 million on September 21, AED 80.01 million on September 23 and AED 94.66 million on September 25, were each forwarded in a single transfer to one new address (all but AED 20 of the September 21 mint), and on September 30 each moved once more, in full, to another single address, where they still sit: AED 410.97 million, 80.66% of AEDZ on Ethereum. The AED 93.25 million minted on October 6 was still undivided at the issuance address at that day’s close, and on October 7 it moved, whole, through one intermediate address to a single new address. Together the five blocks account for 98.96% of Ethereum supply. None has been divided into smaller balances. The October 6 issuance also adds up to a round allocation across both chains: exactly AED 200.00 million, split between Ethereum and Solana.

The UAE’s other dirham token OCB reads moved differently. DDSC, the coin developed by International Holding Company and First Abu Dhabi Bank on ADI Chain, fell from AED 50.79 million to AED 48.72 million (US$13.27 million) over the same 19 days, after swinging between AED 46.09 million and AED 60.79 million. AEDZ’s growth came on issuance days, not as a steady rise, and on Ethereum it went to five block-sized addresses.

On Ethereum, AEDZ has grown through large allocations, not payments

The usual pitch for a local-currency stablecoin is retail and merchant payments: a dirham, a real or a tenge that moves as easily as a dollar token. AEDZ’s Ethereum leg points elsewhere. There, a bank-issued coin multiplied its supply in weeks through a few large allocations. The data does not show whether the five Ethereum addresses belong to customers, a custodian or the issuer itself; it does show that none of those blocks has yet been broken into smaller balances. A similar sequence appears on the dollar side of the market, where RLUSD reached treasuries before it reached retail, and where reserve rules, not payment volume, set which coins institutions can hold.

For Gulf banks, corporate treasurers and the central banks now drafting national-token pilots, the measure that will matter is not the size of the next mint. It is whether these blocks are ever broken into the many smaller balances that payments require, on Ethereum, Solana or the XRP Ledger, where Zand has said it plans to issue. If they are, AEDZ will show that block-sized issuance can turn into circulating money. If they are not, the next wave of national stablecoins may learn that supply can grow nearly fivefold while its largest blocks stay whole. Will the next AEDZ transfers on Ethereum divide those blocks, or move them whole again?