The Registration Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the emirate’s international financial center, has published guidance that treats crypto mining as a licensable commercial activity rather than a regulated financial service.
The Guidance on Crypto Mining Activities in and from ADGM was issued under section 23 of the Commercial Licensing Regulations 2025, ADGM said on Wednesday. It applies to mining operators and to businesses that conduct mining activities within or from the financial center.
ADGM said the document is the first comprehensive crypto mining guidance issued by an international financial center in the region.
The guidance takes a technology-neutral approach. It covers Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake systems as well as future consensus mechanisms.
Operators will be licensed under a dedicated commercial activity code, 7230. A pre-application self-assessment is intended to separate commercial mining from activities regulated by ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA).
Applicants must disclose their corporate structure and ultimate beneficial ownership. On-chain reward-flow addresses will be disclosed to the authority on a confidential basis.
Supervision will be risk-based and scaled to the size and risk profile of each operation. The guidance also sets out how the authority will oversee ADGM-registered headquarters that run mining operations elsewhere.
“Abu Dhabi’s economy is increasingly shaped by digital infrastructure, and crypto mining sits at the intersection of energy, technology and capital,” said Rashed Al Blooshi, chief executive of the ADGM Registration Authority.
“We are giving operators a clear commercial licensing pathway, proportionate supervision calibrated to scale and risk, and certainty on where the regulatory perimeter resides,” he said.
The guidance is the first phase of the authority’s approach to the sector. In a second phase, the Registration Authority will develop a regulatory framework for crypto mining and consult the market on it.
The document follows an eight-week public consultation held earlier this year.
