Stephanelle Diab wrote this article in MTV website: 

Distributed Technologies Research Ltd. (DTR), a company based in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), has officially launched in the UAE and is targeting emerging markets like Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey with a UAE dirham-backed stablecoin.   

The company’s CEO Akshay Naheta, a former Senior Vice President for Investments at SoftBank Group, told MTV in an exclusive interview that the stablecoins, named DRAM, will be issued through DRAM Trust based in Hong Kong.

DTR’s initial goal is to take a piece of a rapidly expanding stablecoin market, estimated by analysts at Bernstein to reach $2.8 trillion within the next five years, from $125 billion today - a more than 2100% increase.

Stablecoins are a tokenized version of fiat currency (USD, euro, pound, dirham). In this case, the DRAM coin will be backed by UAE dirham reserves.

“The reason why we chose to do a dirham-backed stablecoin is because most of the stablecoin market is dominated by the US dollar. For this reason, we think that backing by the dirham, a very stable currency from a macroeconomic perspective, is a highly credible alternative. The UAE is outperforming most developed markets from a macroeconomic perspective, enabled by high migration, rapidly growing inbound investment, safety, and security. With DRAM, you’re still completely pegged to the US dollar without having to worry about the US economy, or losing the value of your money,” said Mr. Naheta.

“We think that it is the right time for this, given the fact that it (UAE dirham) ranks really high all around the world. I believe that emerging markets like Turkey, India, Lebanon, and Egypt will have a pretty hard time dealing with higher interest rates and the inflationary effects that will plague their economies as a consequence of currencies depreciating. Hence the need for DRAM coins,” he added.

The stablecoin technology is the first of a number of fintech related products that DTR expects to roll out over time. 
“This is the first piece of our bigger puzzle. We will be launching our defi wallet in Q1 next year which will create the rare utility for people to use the stablecoin for regular services like traveling or buying subscriptions online,” said Mr. Naheta.

Moreover, countries like Lebanon could benefit significantly from these types of services, especially due to the large disparity in the country’s official and unofficial Exchange Rates.

“People in Lebanon do not trust the banking system any more given everything that has happened these past few years, and therefore they’re scared of putting all their money in the banks. Now, there’s an alternative currency, and since a lot of Lebanese come to the UAE and spend time here, they understand how strong and stable the Emirati economy and currency is, and therefore can invest in these stablecoins,” said Mr. Naheta.

DRAM coins will be available on decentralized exchanges including Uniswap, Sushiswap and Pancakeswap.