Coinbase has received Financial Services Permission from Abu Dhabi Global Market's regulator to arrange investment deals and provide custody for tokenized securities. The exchange plans to build its international tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi, with eligible token holders gaining shareholder rights such as dividends and voting.
Coinbase secures approval for tokenized securities
Coinbase said in an announcement published by Abu Dhabi Global Market that the Financial Services Regulatory Authority granted the exchange permission to arrange investment deals and provide custody services for tokenized securities. The license gives Coinbase a regulated base within ADGM, Abu Dhabi's international financial center, for issuing and servicing digital securities linked to traditional financial assets.
Rather than using the emirate only for cryptocurrency trading, the company plans to make Abu Dhabi its primary international tokenization center outside the United States. Each tokenized security will be backed by an underlying share, and eligible verified holders will receive dividend and voting rights tied to the represented stock, subject to the terms in the relevant prospectus.
Dividend payments will be reinvested automatically under the described structure. Some voting and redemption rights will also depend on whether a holder meets applicable vesting requirements, so access to every shareholder function may not be immediate. The licensing announcement did not identify the first shares Coinbase will tokenize, the blockchain networks that will support them, or a launch date.
Wallets replace conventional brokerage accounts
Investors will not need a conventional brokerage account or a correspondent banking relationship to hold the planned securities; instead, eligible users will need a compatible blockchain wallet, according to Coinbase. Transfers will still undergo continued sanctions screening, and Coinbase will retain the ability to freeze or seize assets at the wallet level when regulations require it.
This model follows Coinbase's earlier work on 1:1-backed tokenized stocks with Base, its Ethereum layer-2 network. Coinbase Institutional co-CEO Brett Tejpaul said ADGM had established one of the first regulatory systems for virtual assets in 2018 and continued developing rules for blockchain-based financial products.
Abu Dhabi joins Dubai in Coinbase's UAE build-out
From Abu Dhabi, Coinbase plans to run its tokenized-securities and on-chain capital-markets business, while Dubai will host its international derivatives operations. ADGM and its FSRA oversee financial services in Abu Dhabi's free zone, while the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority supervises virtual-asset businesses operating in or from Dubai, except those based in the Dubai International Financial Centre.
The Abu Dhabi approval, however, does not by itself authorize Coinbase to offer the ADGM-issued securities in the United States. Any domestic product involving tokenized shares would remain subject to U.S. securities laws and SEC oversight. CoinGecko data cited in an earlier report showed the number of listed tokenized stocks rising from 14 in January 2024 to 478 by May 2026, an increase of more than 3,300%.
Source: crypto.news
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