Joining me is Anthony Sassine, Co-Founder and CEO of OCÉANE Global, a market maker for ETFs on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Anthony, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thanks for having me.
How has this event been for you and how is the ETF sector developing here?
It is a great gathering of industry professionals — the exchange world and the market making world trying to find solutions for local demand, local investors, trading on the exchanges, and advancing technology. We have met with people you do not see every day. So far so good.
The ETF industry in this part of the world is microscopic compared to the US — 43 listed ETFs versus 4,000 in the US and 17,000 globally. Tell us about the size of the market and the innovation happening.
That is our focus here at the conference — to push the agenda for ETFs. We are close to $7 to $8 billion in assets here versus $23 trillion globally. We have a long way to go. But local investors love ETFs and have been investing in them historically. Now we are looking to bring those ETFs here so they can access them on the local exchanges. Over the past year we made some progress — we were behind the four cross-listings that happened from the New York Stock Exchange to Abu Dhabi, which was a great milestone for the region. One of them is KraneShares, which was $8 billion at the time and tracks China Internet. Another is AJAX, which invests in public and private AI companies including Anthropic — so when SpaceX IPO'd, that fund had 2% in SpaceX and people could participate in that IPO alongside other private companies. We also helped list carbon credits on the exchange, a Sharia-compliant income fund — the first of its kind in the region. And other innovative funds from Lunate covering quantum computing, AI, power, and luxury.
What has investor appetite been like for these products?
Knowledge is definitely part of it. Because the focus has not been on ETFs here and you do not have too many big players involved in a meaningful way, education is lagging. But cross-listings bring global asset managers into the region — more research, more energy, more conversations. Traditionally the institutional world — family offices, banks — has been investing in ETFs with big money in the US and Europe. We want to bring that here. Currently the appetite has been centred around thematic ETFs — quantum, AI, power, AJAX, and US growth which tracks the Magnificent Seven. These ETFs have been really in demand alongside income funds.
How does tokenisation change the game for ETFs?
Before 1990, investors had mutual funds — you could trade once a day, every transaction triggered a tax event, and you paid high fees. ETFs in the 1990s revolutionised that — cut the fees, allowed all-day trading, provided more transparency and tax efficiency. Now if we are going to move into the next stage, ETFs still have shortcomings — settlement and middlemen — which tokenisation will take care of. When you buy an ETF today it takes two days to settle. With tokenisation it happens right away. It is looking like the vehicle of the future, but the infrastructure and connectivity globally required for the ETF ecosystem is very complex. It triggers a chain of events across 10 to 15 institutions to make that trade happen. That infrastructure is not there yet. But one day it will be complete and it is going to change the game.
Thank you Anthony for joining us and giving us an insight into the world of ETFs on the ADX.
Thank you for having me.
