Animoca Brands has completed a nearly year-long regulatory process in Abu Dhabi, obtaining full authorization for its local subsidiary to manage collective investment funds aimed at professional investors.
The announcement on November 2, 2026, confirms that Animoca Asset Management (AD) Limited received a Financial Services Permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the UAE capital’s international financial center.
The permission specifically covers the regulated activity of managing a collective investment fund within or from ADGM.
It became effective on October 13, 2026, following an in-principle approval granted in November 2025 that was subject to conditions and final clearance.
This step allows the subsidiary to pool capital from institutional and other non-retail clients under ADGM’s framework, without offering products to the general public.
Some regulatory details indicate the authorization does not extend to serving retail clients or directly holding or controlling client assets, requiring separate arrangements for custody where needed.
Minh Do, Senior Executive Officer and Director of Animoca Asset Management, described the approval as a significant milestone for the group’s Middle East operations.
He noted that it enables the management of collective investment funds within a solid regulatory environment and helps connect institutional capital to emerging developments in the agentic web and digital assets.
Arvind Ramamurthy, Chief Market Development Officer at ADGM, welcomed the expansion, stating that it strengthens links between institutional capital and digital assets in the ecosystem and supports Abu Dhabi’s role as a center for innovation in digital finance.
This Abu Dhabi authorization builds on Animoca Brands’ existing presence in the United Arab Emirates.
In February 2026, the company secured a Virtual Asset Service Provider licence from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.
That license permits the provision of virtual asset broker-dealer services as well as management and investment services for institutional and qualified investors in and from Dubai (excluding the Dubai International Financial Centre).
The two approvals create a regulated footprint across key UAE jurisdictions as the firm expands its institutional offerings.
Animoca Brands, originally spun out from a mobile game developer in 2014, shifted its focus toward blockchain and digital assets around 2018.
It has since developed platforms including Moca Network, Open Campus, Anichess, and The Sandbox while maintaining an investment portfolio spanning more than 600 companies and digital assets.
Notable early holdings included interests connected to OpenSea, Dapper Labs, and Sky Mavis, the developer behind Axie Infinity.
The company now positions itself as a global digital assets group that builds and invests in technologies such as autonomous agentic AI, while also providing services that help crypto projects launch and scale.
The new fund management permission supports Animoca’s broader strategy of developing institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure, linking traditional financial institutions with decentralized networks, advancing tokenized assets, and integrating agentic AI with crypto enabled environments.
In recent investor communications, the firm has outlined a transition from primarily operating as a digital asset and blockchain focused company toward becoming a regulated financial services entity across multiple jurisdictions, with particular attention to stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization, and treasury management.
The approval arrives as ADGM’s fund and asset management sector continues to grow.
By mid-2026, the center reported 190 fund and asset managers, up 23 percent from the prior year, alongside dozens of new Financial Services Permissions issued in the first half of the year.
For Animoca Brands, the Abu Dhabi license represents both a regulatory achievement and a practical building block for future institutional products, even as specific fund launches, target sizes, or assets under management have not yet been disclosed.
By securing this final clearance, Animoca Brands advances its Middle East expansion and reinforces its capacity to serve institutional capital seeking regulated exposure to digital assets and related technologies.
