UAE startups, Droplinked and Sorbet chosen for Circle’s Developer Grants, a launchpad for bold thinkers for next era of onchain finance. With USDC and Circle’s suite of APIs and SDKs at their disposal, developers across the globe are creating tangible solutions that make blockchain practical and accessible.

Circle in a blog post introduced their newest group of grantees which spanned from Asia, to Middle East, to LATAM to Europe. Projects chosen include DeFi projects, tokenization of real world assets, and others.

The 13 grantees include UAE Droplinked a decentralized commerce platform that allows individuals to create their own store and trade various products and services using non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The blockchain enabled platform offers users the convenience of selling different types of products, including print-on-demand, digital, and physical goods and event tickets seamlessly. It provides a versatile experience for creators and entrepreneurs to showcase their offerings to a global audience.

Droplinked is focused on decentralized commerce, enabling individuals to explore new opportunities, overcome geographical limitations, and engage in secure and efficient transactions.

The second UAE entity to be offered a grant by Circle is Sorbet, which offers stablecoin payments for freelancers, startups, and businesses. It was initially incubated in Saudi Arabia and is not regulated out of ADGM in Abu Dhabi.

Other grantees include Encifher from Singapore, Hurupay, Locker and Kantin from USA, Lympid from Portugal, Orbital Pay from India, Paymonei from Indonesia, Perpflow from Serbia, Sivo Revenue Marketplace from Canada, TixBase in USA and WanderWallet in Argentina.

Circle announced that it will be reopening its grant application in 2026 and add a new track for its Blockchain Arc grants.