Coinbase has obtained a Financial Services Permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market, enabling the company to establish an international hub for tokenized securities. The authorization covers arranging deals in investments and providing custody services, positioning the exchange to issue and service digital versions of traditional financial assets outside the United States.

Under the planned structure, tokenized securities will be registered and issued in ADGM under FSRA supervision. Each token will be backed one-to-one by the underlying shares. Verified holders will receive associated shareholder rights, including dividends and voting, subject to specific terms. Investors will access the products through a compatible blockchain wallet rather than a conventional brokerage account or correspondent banking relationship.

Transfers of the tokens will remain subject to continuous sanctions screening. Coinbase stated it retains the ability to freeze or seize assets at the wallet level when required by regulation. Dividends will be reinvested automatically for holders. Voting rights over the underlying shares and redemption rights will apply only to vested holders. Exercising redemption will require a brokerage or bank account capable of receiving proceeds, while trading the tokens themselves will not.

Details of the Planned Product

The company has not set a launch date, named any specific equities, or identified the blockchain networks that will support the tokens. Availability will be limited to eligible jurisdictions outside the United States. The product page lists the service as coming soon. Coinbase described the move as an initial step toward expanding capital-market access for people who currently lack it, citing a figure of 4 billion individuals worldwide without providing a source for that number.

Coinbase first outlined the concept of one-to-one backed tokenized U.S. stocks with on-chain dividends in June. The current permission builds on earlier activity in ADGM. In December 2023 the firm entered the FSRA RegLab sandbox with Project Diamond, an institutional smart-contract platform built on Base. It had previously conducted a pilot involving a USDC-denominated debt instrument.

Broader UAE Presence

Alongside the Abu Dhabi tokenization hub, Coinbase is developing a global derivatives operation in Dubai. That effort follows its acquisition of Deribit, completed in August 2025, when the options venue held approximately $60 billion in open interest. Deribit had earlier received conditional approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and relocated its headquarters there. The two centers operate under distinct regulatory regimes: ADGM and the FSRA in Abu Dhabi, and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in Dubai.

ADGM itself has not issued a separate public announcement of the permission. The financial center introduced one of the earliest regulatory frameworks for virtual assets in 2018 and has continued refining rules for blockchain-based products.

Market Context

Tokenized public equities currently represent a market valued at approximately $2.49 billion, according to available data, with more than one million holders and substantial monthly transfer volume. Other issuers already operate tokenized equity products under ADGM rules. Coinbase’s permission places it among firms seeking to bring traditional securities onto blockchain networks while maintaining regulatory compliance and institutional controls.

The Abu Dhabi authorization does not permit the offering of these ADGM-issued securities to U.S. investors. Any domestic tokenized-share product would remain subject to U.S. securities laws and oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Separate discussions have taken place regarding potential U.S. frameworks for blockchain-based securities, but those remain distinct from the ADGM permission.