Coinbase Wins Abu Dhabi Tokenization Bet with Regulated Infrastructure Push

Coinbase has been working towards establishing its presence in Abu Dhabi's tokenized securities market for nearly three years, and recent developments suggest it may be making significant progress. The region has already seen live tokenized securities on an official list, with a sovereign-backed asset manager putting private markets on public blockchains.

The most concrete move by Coinbase began with Project Diamond, an institutional platform its asset management arm announced in December 2023. This project used Base, Coinbase Prime custody, Web3 Wallet, and USDC to issue, distribute, and mature a short-term digital debt instrument as a technical demonstration for the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market.

BTECH Holdings Limited, which is linked to Binance, was the first to admit tokenized digital securities to ADGM's Official List, with trading on the Recognized Investment Exchange operated by Nest Exchange Limited. The securities were structured as certificates over shares, and the FSRA approved the relevant prospectuses on June 11, 2026.

Mubadala Capital launched tokenized access to one of its private markets strategies with KAIO in July, making Coinbase's Abu Dhabi story more serious. This move attracted about $75 million in onchain assets and saw Coinbase take exposure to the fund on its own balance sheet.