ADGM Becomes the Region's First International Financial Centre to Publish Dedicated Crypto Mining Guidance
AI Analysis
ADGM’s Registration Authority published dedicated Guidance on Crypto Mining Activities in and from ADGM on 28 October 2026. The Guidance classifies commercial crypto mining as a licensable commercial activity under section 23 of the Commercial Licensing Regulations 2025, rather than an FSRA-regulated financial service, creating a dedicated licensing route while signalling that a fuller regulatory framework will follow after further consultation.
Key dates
- 2026-10-28
- ADGM published the Guidance on Crypto Mining Activities in and from ADGM under section 23 of the Commercial Licensing Regulations 2025.
Suggested considerations
- Firms considering establishment or continued operation in ADGM should perform the RA pre-application self-assessment and document why their activities fall within commercial mining rather than an FSRA-regulated financial service.
- Operators should assess whether they require or should apply for the dedicated commercial licence associated with activity code 7230 and should avoid representing the licence as an authorisation to conduct regulated financial services.
- Compliance teams may wish to prepare an up-to-date corporate structure and ultimate-beneficial-owner information for RA review, together with governance documentation proportionate to the scale and risk of the operation.
- Operators should identify all blockchain addresses used to receive mining rewards and establish controlled procedures for making the required confidential on-chain address disclosures to the RA.
- ADGM-headquartered groups should map global mining activities, reporting lines, outsourced infrastructure, jurisdictional controls and board oversight so that the ADGM entity can demonstrate reasonable supervision of overseas operations.
- Firms should review whether staking, validator, custody, brokerage, token issuance, investment management or other associated activities separately require FSRA permission or create an additional regulatory perimeter.
- Operators may wish to monitor the RA’s forthcoming consultation on the second-phase regulatory framework and preserve records supporting their current perimeter analysis, licensing basis, governance and operational-risk controls.
- Firms should consider the practical implications identified in independent commentary, including operational resilience, cybersecurity, infrastructure security, energy management, transparent service terms and any applicable UAE federal tax, accounting and AML/CFT requirements, without treating those commentary points as additional requirements expressly created by this publication.
What changed
Commercial crypto mining conducted in or from ADGM is associated with dedicated RA commercial activity code 7230 and requires the applicable commercial licensing pathway. The Guidance is technology-neutral and covers Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Stake and future consensus mechanisms. It establishes a pre-application self-assessment to help applicants distinguish mining from FSRA-regulated financial activities, and highlights expectations concerning corporate structure, ultimate beneficial ownership, and confidential disclosure of on-chain addresses used for reward flows. The RA will apply risk-based supervision calibrated to operational scale and individual risk profiles, including a stated reasonable-oversight approach for ADGM-registered headquarters supervising global operations. Independent
Compliance impact
The immediate impact is material for commercial operators because the activity is placed within an identifiable RA licensing perimeter and subject to governance, ownership transparency, reward-address disclosure and risk-based supervisory expectations. The publication does not state a new application deadline, enforcement date or financial penalty schedule; however, operating without the appropria
Who is affected
Related regulations
References
AI-generated analysis. May contain errors or omissions — verify with the original ADGM source before acting. Full disclaimer.
What the ADGM said
The Registration Authority (“RA”) of ADGM, the international financial centre (“IFC”) of Abu Dhabi, has published its Guidance on Crypto Mining Activities in and from ADGM (“the Guidance”).
Published by ADGM . Read the full notice at the source for the authoritative text.