Zand, the digital bank of the UAE, announced a strategic partnership with Ripple to drive the region's digital economy through stablecoins and blockchain solutions. The two companies will collaborate on innovative initiatives surrounding Zand's AEDZ stablecoin and Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin. Under the agreement, they will explore supporting RLUSD within Zand's regulated digital asset custody service and investigate direct liquidity solutions between AEDZ and RLUSD. Furthermore, they plan to issue AEDZ on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Zand CEO Michael Chan stated that leveraging stablecoins and tokenization technology unlocks new use cases for bringing traditional finance to the blockchain. AEDZ is the UAE's first regulated, multi-chain AED-collateralized stablecoin, backed 1:1 by the AED reserve. This collaboration aims to help the UAE achieve its goal of doubling its digital economy contribution by 2032. (The Fintech Times)