Abu Dhabi ADGM draws miners, sovereign funds, global firms

Abu Dhabi’s Abu Dhabi Global Market has attracted bitcoin miners, sovereign investors and major crypto firms by offering a specific regulatory and tax framework. Citadel Mining holds about 6,996 bitcoin mined since 2022. Mubadala Investment Company raised its holding in BlackRock’s IBIT spot Bitcoin ETF to roughly 14.7 million shares in the first quarter of 2026.

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority has licensed virtual asset activity in ADGM since 2018 and requires firms to obtain a Financial Services Permission before operating. Only assets designated by the FSRA as “Accepted Virtual Assets” may be used in regulated products. Privacy tokens and algorithmic stablecoins are barred. Capital requirements are set according to the size and type of business. The Reglab sandbox permits startups to test products under regulatory supervision. A Fiat-Referenced Token framework refined through 2025 is scheduled to take fuller effect in 2026 and provides a regulatory path for stablecoin issuance inside the zone.

Several large crypto firms have secured ADGM approvals or opened local offices. An international exchange obtained full permissions for trading, clearing and brokerage through separate local entities. Galaxy Digital maintains an ADGM office. A global custodian bank is working with local partners toward regulated custody for bitcoin and ether. Stablecoin issuers, including issuers of USDT and other fiat-referenced tokens, hold permissions to operate within the framework.

ADGM’s free-zone status offers tax and ownership terms that attract firms and staff. Qualifying corporate income can be taxed at 0%, individuals generally face no personal income or capital gains tax, foreign founders may retain full ownership, and long-term residency options are available through Golden Visas.

Sovereign and state-linked investors have increased exposure to bitcoin through both direct and tokenized products. Mubadala reported about 12.7 million IBIT shares at the end of 2025 and raised the position by around 16% to roughly 14.7 million shares in Q1 2026. Al Warda Investments, linked to the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, held about 8.2 million IBIT shares at year-end 2025. Mubadala Capital partnered with a tokenization platform to place its Alternative Solutions Fund onchain across multiple networks; the tokenized product recorded roughly $75 million onchain around key announcements, and total value locked was reported at about $39.7 million on Aug. 5, 2026.

Mining activity has expanded in the emirate. Onchain analysis attributes roughly 6,996.557 bitcoin to Citadel Mining, an entity tied to Abu Dhabi’s Royal Group, and indicates most of those coins were produced by mining rather than purchases and have been largely retained. Public filings and industrial partnerships document capacity growth: a publicly traded miner partnered with an Abu Dhabi-linked firm on immersion-cooled operations, while other local groups added hashrate and hybrid compute that can shift toward artificial-intelligence workloads.

Regulators have banned mining on agricultural land and imposed penalties for violations, directing operations toward designated industrial and free-zone sites. Multiple UAE free zones, including competing frameworks in other emirates, offer alternative regulatory and commercial terms for exchanges, custodians, miners and startups.

ADGM operates as a financial free zone with its own courts based on English common law and has offered virtual asset permissions and a regulatory sandbox since 2018. Ongoing work on the fiat-referenced token rules and farm-mining restrictions is scheduled to shape how companies operate in the zone through 2026.