From Niche To Necessary: Ultima Chain Founder Alex Reinhardt Is Building His Dubai-Based Blockchain Platform For Real Utility, Rather Than Hype

Alex Reinhardt, the founder of the Dubai-based blockchain platform Ultima Chain, has long been drawn to the real-world potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. With a background in economics and a career as an entrepreneur, investor, and business coach, crypto presented to Reinhardt the potential to transform the interplay of capital, incentives, and technology. “When I discovered it more than a decade ago, I wasn’t just interested in cryptocurrency—I saw a new type of infrastructure: transparent, programmable, and borderless,” he tells Inc. Arabia. “That combination of entrepreneurship, investing, and emerging tech ultimately led me to build products, and, eventually, launch Ultima Chain as a full ecosystem, not just a standalone network.”

It was in 2025 that Reinhardt launched Ultima Chain as a high-speed Layer-1 blockchain that was designed to be a scalable, low-cost infrastructure for digital payments as well as decentralized applications for practical, everyday use. Indeed, with Ultima Chain, Reinhardt has designed an ecosystem that connects Web3 to everyday life, with a full stack of solutions that allow users to manage digital assets, purchase goods, and pay using crypto. The ecosystem includes UWallet, a mobile-first platform that allows users to store, send, and manage digital assets. It also features its own marketplace, enabling users to purchase goods using cryptocurrency, while also allowing them to access reward features. And finally, completing the ecosystem is UCard, the platform’s crypto-to-fiat payments utility, which works both online and offline, which aims to make paying with crypto “feel as seamless as using a regular card.”

Beyond payments and wallets, the Ultima Chain ecosystem also incorporates trading tools that target users seeking a more systematic approach to crypto markets. “A key part of the ecosystem is also our automated trading solutions—trading bots that operate on smart strategies and are designed to perform across different market conditions, whether the market is rising, falling, or moving sideways,” Reinhardt explains. "This adds an important layer of practical value for users who want a more systematic, technology-driven approach to the market. The goal is simple: make blockchain useful, accessible, and frictionless for daily life—not only for traders or developers.”

With Ultima Chain, Alex Reinhardt has designed an ecosystem that connects Web3 to everyday life.

At the protocol level, Ultima Chain is engineered for speed and efficiency. For starters, the platform replaces the energy-intensive mining typically seen in proof-of-work models with a user-driven, low-energy delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus to validate transactions. As Reinhardt explains, while proof-of-work relies heavily on computing power to secure the network, proof-of-stake secures it through staking and validator participation.

However, Ultima Chain’s core innovation lies in its splitting technology, which allows new blocks to be generated in roughly three seconds, with the network itself capable of processing more than 2,000 transactions per second. As a technology layer, splitting has been designed to make participation in the Ultima Chain ecosystem simple and rewarding, allowing users to support the ecosystem by “freezing assets,” and, in return, receive daily rewards from a dedicated liquidity pool. “In practical terms, splitting makes it possible for ordinary users to get rewards without mining, trading, or technical complexity,” Reinhardt adds. “It is transparent, sustainable, and designed to work at scale because it operates through a decentralized liquidity pool with clear rules for proportional distribution. For developers and institutions, trust comes from clarity: predictable mechanics, transparent on-chain logic, and an infrastructure that is built for stable, high-throughput use cases.”

Alongside speed and accessibility, Ultima Chain has also been designed with developers in mind, supporting familiar tools and a range of value-transfer and data-driven applications. Reinhardt points out that, together, the combination of DPoS and three-second block production makes the network well-suited for “high-frequency, consumer-facing applications where speed and cost stability are non-negotiable.” This includes everything from everyday payments, cross-border transfers, merchant settlement, microtransactions, and on-chain services that need performance similar to Web2. “It also opens strong use cases in gaming, non-fungible token (NFT) platforms, and high-volume decentralized finance activity—areas where slow confirmation or unpredictable fees quickly break user adoption,” he adds.

Ultima Chain founder Alex Reinhardt. 

For Reinhardt, however, performance alone is not the only differentiator; what matters most is how that performance translates into a better user experience. “In addition to pure speed, what matters is how that speed translates into a better product experience: users don’t wait, fees don’t spike unexpectedly, and applications can scale without hitting performance ceilings,” he says. “Today, we’re applying this in a product ecosystem that includes UWallet and UCard— tools that make it possible to store, send, and spend digital assets in real life. In parallel, splitting and other reward features are available directly inside the wallet, so users can participate without needing deep technical knowledge. That is how performance becomes practical adoption.”

In addition to usability, speed, and performance, sustainability is another pillar that Reinhardt was determined to embed into Ultima Chain from the outset. Rather than regarding it as a marketing narrative, Reinhardt tells us that he views sustainability as a core design principle that is closely tied to the platform’s long-term adoption. “If you want mass adoption, you need infrastructure that is fast, affordable, and responsible—all at the same time,” he points out. “Eco-efficiency is now both a baseline expectation and a competitive advantage—depending on how a project approaches it. From a reputational standpoint, any serious blockchain must be responsible and energy-efficient, especially as regulators, institutions, and major enterprises pay closer attention to sustainability. In that sense, it’s no longer a ‘nice to have.’ However, eco-efficiency becomes a real advantage when it directly improves the user experience and the economics of the network. Energy-heavy systems typically translate into higher costs and structural limitations. Efficient consensus models like DPoS make high throughput possible without the environmental trade-offs, and that enables lower fees and better scalability.”

Now, as someone who has been involved in blockchain since 2011, Reinhardt is also clear-eyed about the industry’s challenges. With the market crowded by competing platforms, he believed that launching a new Layer-1 would only make sense if it could solve real problems better than existing options. Timing, too, was critical. Rising adoption and increasing market pressure made 2025, in Reinhardt’s view, the right moment to launch Ultima Chain. “Over the years, the industry has made huge progress—but many networks still struggle with high costs, user-friendly onboarding, and scalability under real-world demand,” he points out. “In practice, people don’t want to think about block times or congestion—they want an experience that feels instant, stable, and reliable. For me, the right moment to launch Ultima Chain was when the conversation shifted from ‘experimentation’ to ‘mass usage’—and when the industry faced a real stress test. In 2025 alone, data from CoinGecko [an independent cryptocurrency data aggregator] showed that 11.6 million crypto tokens failed, which highlights just how difficult it is for projects to survive without real utility, strong fundamentals, and long-term vision.”

Ultima Chain founder Alex Reinhardt. 

That market reality reinforces Reinhardt’s conviction that longevity requires more than technical performance alone. “That’s exactly why Ultima Chain is not ‘just another network,’” he says. “We combined high performance with a full product ecosystem designed for real everyday scenarios—from wallets and payments to reward mechanics like splitting. In a market where millions of projects disappear, building something that lasts requires more than hype: it requires infrastructure, usability, and a system that people can actually rely on at scale.” 

Reinhardt’s experience working in venture capital (VC) has shaped how Ultima Chain has been structured, particularly in terms of governance and incentives. “VC teaches you one lesson very quickly: incentives drive behavior,” Reinhardt says. “And if incentives are misaligned, even great technology will underperform in the real world. That experience heavily influenced how we approached Ultima Chain. Governance must be predictable and community-driven, but also efficient enough to support rapid improvements. DPoS is a strong fit here, because it encourages active participation: token holders vote for super representatives who validate transactions, produce blocks, and are rewarded for performance. Long-term incentives should reward contributions that strengthen the ecosystem—stability, liquidity, network security, and real usage. That is also why we built mechanisms like splitting: it offers a clear, transparent way for users to participate and benefit, without forcing them into high-risk behavior or complex trading. In short, my VC background pushed me to design for durability: strong fundamentals, aligned incentives, and a system that can support growth for years, not just hype cycles.”

That focus on durability also informs Reinhardt’s broader view of crypto adoption worldwide. While acceptance continues to vary by region, he believes that mainstream adoption depends on a few core conditions maturing together. “For crypto to become truly mainstream, three conditions have to mature together: usability, trust, and integration,” he says. “First, the user experience must be simple—onboarding, security, and transactions need to feel effortless. Second, trust must come from transparency, compliance, and clear consumer protections. And third, crypto has to integrate into existing economic flows: payments, business operations, settlement, loyalty and rewards, and digital identity. When that happens, the knock-on effects are significant.”

Looking ahead, Reinhardt sees the potential for crypto to significantly influence sectors that place a premium on trust and traceability. “The biggest impact may be in industries where transparency and verification matter: logistics and supply chains, retail authenticity, and corporate accounting and audit trails,” he explains. “For example, blockchain can track goods end-to-end to verify origin and quality, and smart contracts can automate complex workflows across multiple participants. The long-term shift is that businesses will be able to operate with less friction, fewer intermediaries, and more trust—which changes how markets scale globally.”

Keeping this in mind, it makes perfect sense then that Reinhardt has chosen to build his company in Dubai, which has positioned itself as a global hub for crypto and Web3, and in doing so, attracted leading industry players to the city. “The Middle East—and Dubai in particular—has done something that many regions struggle with: it combines ambition, capital, and a forward-looking regulatory mindset,” Reinhardt says. “That mix makes it a natural hub for the next phase of blockchain adoption. What I see happening here is a shift from ‘crypto as speculation’ to ‘crypto as infrastructure.’ The region is actively exploring use cases in payments, fintech partnerships, digital commerce, and tokenization—all areas where high-speed networks and simple user products matter.”

And in being ahead of the curve when it comes to both blockchain and crypto, Dubai—and the Middle East at large— provides the perfect setting for ecosystems such as Ultima Chain to help accelerate adoption. “Ultima Chain engages with the region by building exactly for those priorities: fast, low-cost transactions, mobile-first accessibility, and tools that connect blockchain to real economic activity,” Reinhardt says. “Our focus includes fintech collaborations, merchant and service-provider integrations, and real-world rollout through strategic regional partnerships—turning blockchain from a concept into a daily-use infrastructure for businesses and consumers. The Middle East is not just adopting Web3—it’s shaping how practical, regulated, and consumer-ready Web3 can look at scale.”

Founder To Founder: Alex Reinhardt's pointers for entrepreneurs building in crypto and blockchain

“My advice is to build for the real world, not for hype. In crypto, it’s easy to get distracted by short-term narratives. But lasting companies win because they solve a clear problem, deliver a product people actually use, and create trust through transparency. Start with fundamentals: what is the pain point, who is the user, and why does blockchain genuinely improve the solution?

Second, design for accessibility. Mass adoption will not come from complexity. If a product requires technical expertise, it stays niche. The winners will be teams that make blockchain feel effortless.

Third, invest in leadership and learning. Building a company is a long game—you need resilience, disciplined execution, and the ability to develop people. Your team and your community are your greatest assets.

Finally, think long-term about incentives. The strongest ecosystems are built when users, developers, and the network grow together—with clear rules, fair participation, and sustainable value creation.”

Pictured in the lead image is Alex Reinhardt, the founder of Ultima Chain. All images courtesy Ultima Chain.