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Key Takeaways
- Coinbase received regulatory approval in Abu Dhabi Global Market to arrange investment deals and custody tokenized securities backed by underlying shares.
- The license adds to Coinbase’s existing UAE presence, including a Dubai derivatives business and its 2023 Project Diamond digital debt initiative.
- The move fits a broader institutional tokenization trend, as global asset managers increasingly move funds, bonds, and stocks onto blockchain infrastructure.
Coinbase said Tuesday it has established an international tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi after securing regulatory approval to arrange investment deals and custody tokenized securities.
The license gives the exchange a regulated base for bringing traditional securities on-chain outside the United States, adding to a growing UAE footprint that already includes a derivatives business in Dubai.
What the New License Allows
Coinbase received a Financial Services Permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market, according to a post on the company’s website. The permission lets Coinbase arrange investment deals and provide custody services for tokenized securities within the jurisdiction.
The exchange said it plans to use the license to offer digital securities backed by underlying shares, with the tokens registered and issued in Abu Dhabi Global Market under the regulator’s oversight.
That structure would let Coinbase issue tokenized equity products directly under a single regulatory framework rather than relying on offshore or unregulated wrappers, an approach other platforms have used to offer similar products.
Abu Dhabi’s Regulatory Framework Draws Tokenization Firms
Abu Dhabi Global Market introduced a dedicated regulatory framework for virtual assets in 2018, among the earliest such frameworks globally, and has since drawn a steady stream of crypto and tokenization firms seeking a regulated Middle East base.
The jurisdiction has increasingly served as a test bed for a wider global push to move traditional financial instruments onto blockchain infrastructure.
Brett Tejpaul, co-chief executive of Coinbase Institutional, the exchange’s arm focused on institutional digital asset investors, said in a statement that no major financial center had yet built a framework that treats tokenized equities as multiple things at once.
He described the goal as combining three elements: the legal status of securities, the technical properties of blockchain-native tokens, and the composability that lets assets plug directly into decentralized finance protocols.
Building on an Existing UAE Footprint
Tuesday’s approval extends a presence Coinbase has been building in the UAE since 2023. That year, the exchange’s asset management arm launched Project Diamond, which let institutional investors issue and trade digital debt instruments on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum-based blockchain network, under the oversight of Abu Dhabi regulators.
The UAE tokenization push has continued to build momentum in recent months. Last month, Mubadala Capital, the asset management arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, tokenized one of its private-market investment strategies.
This was done through UAE-based infrastructure provider KAIO, using blockchain rails that included Base. Coinbase itself took exposure to that fund as part of the arrangement.
Part of a Broader Institutional Tokenization Trend
Coinbase’s Abu Dhabi expansion arrives as tokenization expands across traditional finance more broadly. Global asset managers and banks have been moving funds, bonds, private credit and stocks onto blockchain infrastructure over the past two years.
This move was drawn by the prospect of round-the-clock transferability and near-instant settlement compared with conventional market infrastructure.
Supporters of the technology also point to a longer-term use case: tokenized securities could eventually serve as collateral directly within on-chain markets, reducing the friction of moving assets between traditional custodians and decentralized trading venues.
That potential has drawn a wider set of institutions into tokenization pilots well beyond crypto-native firms.
Two Regulatory Bases Anchor Coinbase’s Gulf Strategy
The new Abu Dhabi operation will sit alongside Coinbase’s existing derivatives business in Dubai, giving the exchange two separate regulatory bases within the UAE to expand its business outside the U.S.
The dual presence fits a broader industry pattern of crypto firms building Gulf operations to access institutional capital and regulatory frameworks that are still developing in some larger Western markets.
