Zand, a UAE-based digital bank, is integrating Circle’s USDC into its payments infrastructure so eligible companies can use the dollar stablecoin alongside the bank’s dirham-backed stablecoin for payments, settlement, treasury management, trading and international transactions. The setup links a dollar-pegged token with a digital asset tied to the UAE dirham, letting businesses manage domestic and cross-border obligations in one regulated digital framework as stablecoins move from exchange trading into core banking rails. Zand says it operates the dirham stablecoin across multiple public blockchains, with every token fully backed by reserves held in the national currency, and describes it as the UAE’s first fully regulated multi-chain stablecoin; earlier topic records had also referred to the initiative as AEDZ, with conflicting launch-status descriptions now superseded by the operating, reserve-backed framing. Access is limited to businesses that meet legal, compliance and regulatory requirements, and the bank has not published rollout timelines, corridors or counterparty coverage. Circle has deepened its Middle East footprint through an Abu Dhabi Global Market license and a regional managing director, supporting bank-level integration. The move aligns with the UAE’s Digital Economy Strategy to double the sector’s share of non-oil GDP by 2032, and may eventually matter for Southeast Asia remittance corridors given worker flows from Indonesia, the Philippines and other ASEAN countries, though Zand has not confirmed those routes.