Animoca Brands has secured in-principle approval to launch a fund management business in Abu Dhabi, marking a significant expansion of its regulated footprint in the United Arab Emirates’ fast-evolving digital asset landscape. The green light comes from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), positioning the Hong Kong-headquartered company to deepen its ties with institutional investors in the region.
The approval, granted on November 24, is an intermediate step toward obtaining a full fund management license. Animoca Brands must now satisfy a series of requirements related to capital adequacy, compliance systems, risk controls, and operational readiness before the license can be formally issued. Only after meeting these conditions will the firm be able to fully activate its fund management operations from Abu Dhabi.
Once fully licensed, Animoca Brands will be permitted to manage collective investment vehicles under a regulated framework in the UAE. This would allow the company to structure and oversee funds that allocate capital across the digital asset ecosystem – from web3 gaming and metaverse platforms to infrastructure projects and tokenized assets – for both regional and global investors.
Animoca Brands has built one of the most extensive portfolios in the web3 sector, with more than 600 investments spanning gaming studios, blockchain infrastructure providers, digital property rights projects, and token-based platforms. The prospective Abu Dhabi license is designed to give the company a clear regulatory foundation for managing and scaling these investments in a way that aligns with institutional expectations around governance and oversight.
The move in Abu Dhabi complements Animoca’s regulatory trajectory in Dubai. In October, the firm obtained in-principle approval for a crypto brokerage license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). That forthcoming license would allow Animoca Brands to provide regulated trading and brokerage services in Dubai, creating a two-city strategy within the UAE: Abu Dhabi as a hub for fund management and Dubai as a center for trading and brokerage activities.
Together, these approvals underscore a deliberate regional expansion strategy. As the UAE advances comprehensive regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, Animoca Brands is positioning itself as a compliant, institution-ready player capable of serving both retail ecosystems and professional investors. Abu Dhabi and Dubai, through ADGM and VARA respectively, have become central pillars in that strategy.
Beyond pure financial products, Animoca Brands is also active in the tokenization of real-world assets – one of the most closely watched trends in the digital finance space. One of its initiatives involves a limited partnership fund created alongside DL Holdings, a company listed in Hong Kong. This project uses the XRP Ledger as the underlying blockchain to tokenize interests in the fund, illustrating how Animoca is attempting to merge traditional fund structures with blockchain-based representations of ownership and value transfer.
The company’s strategic ambitions are also reflected in its presence at regional industry events. Yat Siu, Animoca’s co-founder and chairman, is scheduled to speak at the Global Blockchain Show 2025 in Abu Dhabi. His participation signals how the company intends not only to operate within the region but also to help shape the conversation around regulation, innovation, and the future of digital assets in the Middle East.
Animoca Brands operates at several layers of the digital economy. Beyond its investment activities, it offers advisory services to projects entering the web3 space and develops or supports gaming platforms built on blockchain technology. Securing a regulated fund management license in Abu Dhabi would give the firm a dedicated, institutionally recognized channel to structure investment products, attract capital from family offices and funds, and formalize its role as an asset manager in the digital asset sector.
For Abu Dhabi, the decision to grant in-principle approval to a high-profile web3 investor underscores the emirate’s ambition to become a global destination for digital asset businesses that prioritize regulation and investor protection. ADGM’s FSRA has crafted a framework that aims to balance innovation with safeguards, making it attractive for companies like Animoca that want to operate under clear and predictable rules rather than in regulatory grey zones.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi together are emerging as complementary hubs within a single national strategy. Dubai’s VARA is focused heavily on trading, exchanges, and retail-facing crypto services, while ADGM’s FSRA has cultivated a reputation for attracting institutional finance, asset managers, and more complex investment structures. Animoca Brands’ twin approvals illustrate how companies can leverage both frameworks to build vertically integrated operations in one jurisdiction.
The Middle East’s growing prominence in the digital asset industry is not accidental. As some Western markets tighten or slow-roll regulations, the UAE has moved swiftly to define licensing routes for cryptocurrency exchanges, custodians, advisors, tokenization platforms, and now fund managers. This clarity draws firms that seek long-term stability and are willing to operate within a regulated perimeter, rather than chasing short-lived arbitrage opportunities in loosely supervised environments.
For institutional investors, Animoca’s Abu Dhabi approval is particularly relevant. Many funds and family offices have shown interest in exposure to web3, gaming, and metaverse themes but face internal or regulatory constraints when dealing with unregulated managers. A fund management license in a respected financial center can help bridge that gap by introducing familiar compliance processes, audited structures, and recognized oversight, all of which reduce perceived risk.
The company’s interest in tokenization projects, such as the XRP Ledger-based limited partnership fund, hints at how its future Abu Dhabi-based products might look. By combining traditional fund frameworks with on-chain representations of ownership, Animoca can potentially offer investors faster settlements, enhanced transparency, and programmability of assets – for example, enabling automated distribution of returns or secondary market trading of tokenized fund interests in a compliant manner.
At the same time, regulatory scrutiny in Abu Dhabi means Animoca will be expected to implement robust governance. This includes thorough know-your-customer and anti-money laundering procedures, detailed risk management policies, and transparent reporting standards. The journey from in-principle approval to full license is often rigorous, but completion of that process can significantly bolster investor confidence in the firm’s operations.
In the broader web3 gaming world, the approval also carries a symbolic weight. Animoca Brands has long advocated for digital property rights via NFTs and blockchain-based in-game assets. By adding a regulated fund management arm in the UAE, the company can channel more institutional capital into the very ecosystems it has helped create, accelerating the growth of game studios, infrastructure providers, and content creators aligned with its vision.
Looking ahead, the interplay between Animoca’s activities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai could create a more comprehensive digital asset platform. Fund management in Abu Dhabi can feed investment ideas and structured products, while brokerage capabilities in Dubai can facilitate trading, liquidity provision, and market access for those products and for assets in Animoca’s broader portfolio.
For the UAE, hosting players like Animoca Brands supports its goal of being a global nexus for digital innovation, spanning finance, gaming, and tokenized real-world assets. For Animoca, the Abu Dhabi in-principle approval is both a validation of its regulatory-first approach in the region and a gateway to building a more institutional, scalable business at the heart of a rapidly maturing digital asset hub.