Sukuk, one of the most important capital market instruments of Islamic finance, has undergone a new transformation in recent years, driven by both the expansion of its global investor base and the impact of digitalization. The opportunities offered by blockchain technology are making sukuk tokenization a new agenda item for the sector.
The global sukuk market reached a significant milestone in 2025; the volume of sukuk in circulation exceeded the $1 trillion mark, while the annual issuance volume reached an all-time high of approximately $265 billion. This growth has also led to the concentration of sukuk issuances in certain financial centers. Today, London, Dubai, and Kuala Lumpur are considered the three leading centers of the international sukuk market. London, in particular, provides access to a global investor base, while Nasdaq Dubai stands out as an important platform bringing together Gulf capital and Islamic finance investors.
Concrete steps have begun to be taken in the field of tokenized sukuk worldwide. One notable example of this is the tokenization work carried out by Malaysia-based Fusang Exchange in 2023. Fusang tokenized a sukuk issued by the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) on a digital infrastructure, presenting investors with an example of early institutional applications in this field. This development demonstrates that blockchain technology is moving from theory to integration into real market products in Islamic capital markets.
Furthermore, in the Gulf region and Asia, particularly led by Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, regulatory bodies and financial institutions are conducting various pilot studies on tokenized and fractional sukuk models. The main goal of these initiatives is to increase investor access, accelerate issuance processes, and increase secondary market liquidity. Considering the transformation that digitalization has created in capital markets, tokenized sukuk structures can be expected to become one of the significant growth areas of Islamic finance in the coming period. The tokenized sukuk market is still in its early stages globally, but pioneering countries have the potential to gain an advantage in the transformation of the financial ecosystem.
In this context, it should be considered that the tokenization of capital market instruments such as sukuk can contribute to expanding the investor base and making international capital flows more efficient in the long term.
