Bahrain’s wealthy Kanoo family announces plans to bring the $6 trillion trade market on-chain

According to Odaily, Abdulla Kanoo, heir to Bahrain's wealthy Kanoo family, is spearheading an initiative to migrate the approximately $6 trillion cross-border trade market onto blockchain infrastructure. Currently, cross-border payments remain heavily reliant on the traditional correspondent banking system, resulting in long settlement cycles, limited liquidity, and uneven access to the US dollar.

Kanoo stated that ARP Digital, the digital asset infrastructure company he co-founded, is building a settlement network designed to facilitate capital flows between emerging economies. The goal is to reduce the cost of cross-border payments and reliance on intermediaries, thereby accelerating trade fund flows in the "Global South." According to his estimates, trade volume between emerging markets exceeded $6 trillion in 2024, accounting for roughly a quarter of global trade, and is expected to grow to $32 trillion by 2030. (CoinDesk)