H.E. Rashed Al Blooshi, CEO of the RA of ADGM, said: “Abu Dhabi’s economy is increasingly shaped by digital infrastructure, and crypto mining sits at the intersection of energy, technology and capital. With this Guidance, ADGM is open to responsible crypto mining. We are giving operators a clear commercial licensing pathway, proportionate supervision calibrated to scale and risk, and certainty on where the regulatory perimeter resides. Businesses that meet high standards of governance, transparency and operational integrity will find in Abu Dhabi a jurisdiction where they can plan, invest and grow with confidence. This Guidance reflects ADGM’s wider approach to innovation, enabling new business models to develop within a trusted and well-governed environment.”
Miners receive a dedicated commercial license under business activity code 7230. Before they apply, firms are expected to run a self-assessment that tests whether their business stays on the commercial side or crosses into activities the FSRA regulates, a boundary the RA says it wants to keep clear.
The guidance draws that line around who owns the coins. Mining or validating solo, for the operator's own account and on any consensus mechanism, counts as a commercial activity. A firm that holds, controls or exercises discretion over other people's digital assets for staking or validation may be providing custody or managing assets, which are regulated activities, and could need an FSRA Financial Services Permission as well.
Providers of non-custodial infrastructure, such as node hosting, do not currently fall into a regulated activity as long as they never take possession or control of client assets. A company holding both an RA license and an FSRA permission must meet the requirements of both regimes, the document says.
On governance, licensed miners must disclose their corporate structure and ultimate beneficial ownership and keep those records current with the RA. They are also expected to report the wallet and smart contract addresses that receive their mining or validation rewards. The RA has confirmed that these reward-flow addresses are treated as confidential supervisory information and will not be made public, though it may track them with third-party monitoring tools.
Applicants, larger ones in particular, may be asked for a detailed operating plan with projected hash rate and the number of mining units. The RA can also request cybersecurity measures aligned with frameworks such as ISO 27001 and NIST, systems for heat management, and business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
Supervision is risk-based and scaled to the size and risk profile of each operation, so large miners and those serving third parties may face closer scrutiny. The RA's tools include on-site inspections, overseas as well as in ADGM, which can in certain circumstances be unannounced. Enforcement ranges from formal warnings and financial penalties to suspending or revoking the license in serious cases.
A separate section covers ADGM-registered crypto mining headquarters overseeing operations abroad, excluding entities licensed only as holding companies. These headquarters should maintain “reasonable oversight” focused on governance accountability rather than day-to-day operational control. The RA may request details of overseas mining locations, including their jurisdictions, operational structures and scale, such as capacity and hash rate.
The guidance states that mining is not a Virtual Asset Service Provider activity, so miners that offer no such services currently sit outside federal and ADGM anti-money laundering rules. However, they remain subject to transparency, disclosure and record-keeping expectations. Small-scale, non-commercial mining by individuals for personal purposes generally falls outside the guidance, and taxation is left to federal authorities.
The final text follows an eight-week public consultation that began on January 28, when the RA released Discussion Paper No. 1 of 2026 and invited comments from miners, ADGM-based headquarters of global mining groups, service providers, technology vendors and auditors until March 20. ADGM said the responses were substantive and helped it tailor the guidance.
ADGM presents the guidance as part of its wider effort to build out digital assets and emerging technologies, giving responsible miners more certainty to set up and expand from Abu Dhabi in support of the emirate's broader economic vision. Its FSRA has run a virtual asset framework since 2018, and in July it granted Swiss crypto group Bitcoin Suisse a Financial Services Permission for custody and trading. Housing mining with the RA may make entry simpler for companies that mine only for themselves, while operators that handle client assets could still need two approvals.
This guidance is only the first phase of the RA's approach. In a second phase, the authority plans to develop a regulatory framework for crypto mining and will consult the market on it in due course.
