The UAE-based ADGM Registration Authority (“RA”) has revealed Dialogue Paper No. 1 of 2026, looking for stakeholder suggestions on draft steering relating to digital foreign money mining actions performed inside or from ADGM.
In keeping with the announcement, the proposal goals to offer regulatory readability in addition to accountable innovation and governance requirements relating to crypto mining.
In a dialogue paper, ADGM defines cryptocurrency mining as validating transactions on a distributed ledger or infrastructure community in change for reward within the type of digital property generated by a consensus mechanism. Monetary Freezone takes a technology-neutral strategy to its framework and accepts all forms of blockchain, together with proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, and extra.
Licenses for digital foreign money mining entities usually are not supplied beneath the FSRA regulator, however reasonably as a monetary service and beneath a industrial license by the Registrar. Nonetheless, all cryptocurrency entities should additionally adjust to UAE federal legal guidelines which are already in place.
The framework additionally contains clear governance expectations, resembling useful possession disclosure, operational integrity, and risk-based oversight tailor-made to the dimensions and complexity of mining operations.
A brand new idea launched by ADGM is international monitoring, which permits crypto mining entities registered with ADGM to watch and management crypto mining operations abroad as nicely.
ADGM is looking for responses from entities, know-how distributors, auditors, and different related business contributors that interact in or plan to interact in cryptocurrency mining actions. Suggestions required by March 20, 2026.
ADGM needs to ascertain a framework for crypto mining as it will probably pose dangers in areas resembling operational resiliency, cybersecurity, transparency of possession and management, facility well being and security, and cross-border surveillance.
“This is a crucial step in the direction of regulatory certainty for entities concerned in cryptocurrency mining, whether or not working regionally, establishing a regional headquarters, or managing ADGM’s international mining portfolio,” Dmitry Fedotov, head of rising applied sciences at ADGM, stated on LinkedIn.
He added that the areas through which suggestions is especially sought are the readability of licensing necessities, the evaluation, the proportionality of proposed license phrases, the adequacy of on-chain tackle disclosure expectations, the adequacy of supervisory instruments, together with potential SupTech integration, and expectations for ADGM’s headquartered group that oversees international mining operations.
The final one addresses an actual hole, Fedetov stated, as mining operations more and more span a number of jurisdictions. “There may be worth in establishing clear expectations for a way the house firm will conduct oversight, carry out due diligence on jurisdictions, and apply constant governance requirements throughout its international footprint,” he explains.
A small variety of cryptocurrency mining firms function within the UAE
The UAE already has a number of crypto mining entities working in a foreign country.
The 2 major well-known firms are Phoenix, the UAE’s first cryptocurrency mining entity, which held an IPO and listed on the Abu Dhabi Change, and Marathon Digital, which established Abu Dhabi in 2023 by signing a shareholder settlement with FSI (FS Innovation), the BTC mining subsidiary of the sovereign fund UAE ADQ.
Moreover, in 2024, Hut 8, an power infrastructure platform that integrates energy, digital infrastructure, and large-scale computing to energy next-generation energy-intensive use instances resembling Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing, was registered to open an workplace in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
