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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is increasingly building the infrastructure needed to put conventional financial assets on blockchain networks.
One of the strongest signs of that transition came in August when Coinbase received Financial Services Permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to establish an international tokenisation hub at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
The approval allows Coinbase to arrange investment deals and provide custody services connected to tokenised securities, placing the UAE at the centre of the exchange’s attempt to bring more conventional capital-market products on-chain.
Rather than treating blockchain simply as a means of trading cryptocurrencies, the UAE is positioning it as financial infrastructure capable of changing how securities, private funds and eventually other real-world assets are issued, held and transferred.
Where Bitcoin Fits into the UAE's Commercial Gaming Market
Bitcoin occupies a different position from tokenised securities, but the UAE's growing digital-asset infrastructure could eventually have implications for its newly regulated commercial gaming sector.
The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) now regulates internet gaming, sports wagering, lotteries and land-based gaming in the UAE.
They are responsible for ensuring that the operators featured on comparison platform haztayeb1-uae.com/en/ comply with their strict regulations.
Many of those casino sites allow players to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to find their online gambling activities. However, the GCGRA may decide to change how the transactions are processed.
As the market expands, licensed virtual-asset companies could potentially provide conversion, custody and settlement services to gaming businesses where regulators permit them.
This would allow digital assets to be converted into regulated payment instruments before reaching a gaming account. That would fit for effectively into the GCGRA’s regulatory vision.
The UAE is Building the Infrastructure, Not Just Attracting Crypto Firms
Tokenisation converts rights to an underlying asset into blockchain-based digital tokens, potentially making transactions faster and opening traditionally cumbersome markets to new distribution models.
Coinbase's UAE project is significant because the securities it plans to support will remain fully backed by underlying shares and subject to FSRA supervision rather than existing in a lightly regulated parallel market.
Eligible token holders can receive economic and, subject to the relevant conditions, shareholder rights associated with the underlying securities, while transfers remain subject to sanctions screening and other compliance controls.
That combination of blockchain infrastructure and conventional securities regulation explains much of the UAE’s appeal.
ADGM introduced a regulatory framework for virtual assets in 2018 and has subsequently developed rules covering custody, trading and other digital-asset activities, giving companies greater clarity over what they can build and how those products will be supervised.
Coinbase is also establishing a derivatives operation in Dubai, meaning its UAE strategy now spans two different parts of the digital financial system - tokenised capital markets in Abu Dhabi and derivatives infrastructure in Dubai.
Sovereign Capital is Giving Tokenisation Greater Credibility
The private sector is not driving the transformation alone.
Mubadala Capital, part of Abu Dhabi's sovereign investment ecosystem, partnered with Coinbase and local infrastructure company KAIO in July to place one of its private-market investment strategies on blockchain networks including Base, Solana and Sui.
Around $75 million had been committed to the tokenised product at launch, while Coinbase took exposure to the strategy on its corporate balance sheet. That is important because private markets are among the asset classes where tokenisation could have the greatest practical effect.
Private equity and credit investments have traditionally involved lengthy subscription processes, restricted access and comparatively illiquid holdings, whereas blockchain infrastructure can potentially simplify administration, settlement and distribution without removing the regulatory restrictions governing who can invest.
The UAE is also developing local settlement infrastructure. The Central Bank of the UAE approved DDSC in February, a dirham-backed stablecoin developed by First Abu Dhabi Bank, IHC and Sirius International Holding for applications including payments, treasury management and high-value settlement.
Taken together, regulated stablecoins, institutional custody and tokenised securities create the foundations of an ecosystem in which assets and the money used to settle transactions can eventually operate on compatible digital rails.
The UAE Could Become a Major Tokenisation Marketplace
The UAE's advantage is partly structural.
Abu Dhabi has deep pools of institutional capital, Dubai provides an established international business hub, and both emirates have spent years developing specialist regulatory regimes rather than trying to force every blockchain activity into one framework.
That provides fertile ground for banks, asset managers and technology companies to experiment with tokenised funds, bonds, equities, commodities and property while still operating within recognised financial regulation.
The addressable opportunity is substantial. The tokenised real-world asset market exceeded $30 billion during early 2026, while forecasts for the longer-term global market vary considerably but generally point towards trillions of dollars in potential assets.
For the UAE, success would also support the wider strategy of increasing the contribution of finance and technology to the non-oil economy.
Tokenisation is becoming less about whether blockchain will replace traditional finance and more about whether some of traditional finance's existing functions can become cheaper, quicker and easier to distribute by moving on-chain.
- B.E. Delmer, Gambling911.com
