The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM FSRA) presented a package of enhancements to its digital assets regulatory framework, covering updates to the Virtual Asset (VA) regime, a proposed framework for VA staking and finalised rule changes for Fiat-Referenced Tokens (FRTs). The announcement comes against an ADGM ecosystem of more than 20 FSRA-regulated firms active in VAs or FRTs, including broker-dealers, custodians, exchanges, asset managers and FRT issuers. For VAs, the FSRA has implemented changes that refine the process for accepting VAs as Accepted Virtual Assets in ADGM, adjust capital requirements and fees for VA firms, introduce a specific product intervention power for VAs and expand the investment scope for Venture Capital Funds. Separately, a consultation published in September 2025 proposes how VA staking would be regulated and which categories of Authorised Persons would be permitted to conduct staking using clients’ VAs, with feedback currently under review. For FRTs, amendments finalised in October 2025 build on the December 2024 issuance framework by detailing the approach to accepting FRTs for use in ADGM, expanding the scope of Regulated Activities that may be carried on using FRTs and addressing emerging FRT business models through risk-based, proportionate requirements for Authorised Persons. The FRT rule changes take effect on 1 January 2026, while the FSRA continues to assess responses to the proposed VA staking framework.

Original source View in tracker