DIFC Courts add new tools to handle crypto and digital asset disputes

DIFC Courts launch secure custody and blockchain intelligence for digital asset disputes

Last updated: December 15, 2025 | 11:14

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

This new service will be applied on a case-by-case basis and will support the oversight of the Digital Assets Wills service, as well as delivering specialised training and certification to DIFC Courts staff.

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Dubai: The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts have expanded their suite of services for complex digital and financial disputes, announcing the introduction of digital custodian and blockchain intelligence tools through regulated third-party providers. The move forms part of the newly launched DIFC Courts Growth Strategy (2026–2030), which seeks to strengthen the institution’s capacity to oversee the next generation of digital economy cases.

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These specialised services will be available for cases that require advanced technological support. They are aimed at delivering additional integrity, transparency, and security in proceedings involving cryptocurrencies, tokenised assets, and other blockchain-linked disputes.

Secure custody and investigative tools

Under the new framework, Zodia Custody will provide the courts with secure and neutral digital-asset custody during proceedings. The company, backed by financial institutions including Standard Chartered and Emirates NBD, operates under regulatory oversight of the FSRA in Abu Dhabi Global Market through Tungsten Custody Solutions Ltd.

Blockchain analytics firm Crystal Intelligence has also been approved as a specialised service provider, offering investigative and compliance tools for transaction monitoring, asset tracing, sanctions screening, and visualisation of fund flows.

A framework for future disputes

The new services enhance the courts’ ability to handle asset preservation, digital evidence analysis, and risk oversight with greater procedural precision. DIFC Courts said the initiative reinforces its commitment to neutrality, security, and trustworthiness as digital-asset litigation becomes more prevalent.

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As part of its five-year growth strategy, the Courts will continue assessing additional third-party providers to broaden the technical support available for complex cases. These measures also extend to the DIFC Courts’ Digital Assets Wills service, ensuring next-generation estate planning and inheritance disputes benefit from reliable asset verification and custody options.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.