Animoca Brands wins Abu Dhabi fund management license as crypto VC cools

Animoca Brands has successfully crossed a major hurdle in Abu Dhabi. On November 2, it announced that its subsidiary had received permission from the authorities to operate collective investment funds. This now gives the cryptocurrency investor a regulated way to raise funds as venture capital investment in the industry shrinks. No funds or investment commitments have been made public yet.

What the permission covers, and what it rules out

The permission is bound by some clear restrictions. Based on the FSRA’s register, Animoca Asset Management (AD) Limited has been granted Financial Services Permission No. 250097, which is valid from October 13, 2026. It may conduct the management of collective investment funds in or from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) jurisdiction. However, it is not entitled to work with retail clients, nor control clients’ assets. Thus, every future fund will have to be open to non-retail clients, while custody would be made by another entity.

These restrictions are significant when it comes to the ADGM’s new rules. A rule change made in September simplified the requirements for a number of smaller funds and funds for only institutional investors. Animoca may benefit. However, the restriction on retail clients alone does not assure that it meets the requirements. Whether it does will depend on how it sets up the fund and secures custody.

The most recent permission can be seen as a step forward from the 2025 in-principle approval that was mentioned in the previous report by Cryptopolitan. The company has worked on a separate licensing process in Dubai as well. According to Minh Do, the senior executive officer of the Abu Dhabi subsidiary:

“a critical milestone for our operations in the Middle East.”

Abu Dhabi keeps pulling in asset managers

Animoca is entering Abu Dhabi as the financial hub attracts more asset managers. ADGM reported a 54% year-on-year rise in assets under management in the first half of 2026, with 190 fund and asset managers, 276 funds and 13,974 active licences.

UAE being a crypto-friendly financial hub strengthens Abu Dhabi’s appeal. Henley & Partners lifted UAE to the second position in its 2026 Crypto Adoption Index, from fifth in 2025. The Index compares 36 selected jurisdictions in terms of regulatory developments, infrastructure, innovation, and other factors that influence crypto adoption.

For ADGM, the expansion of Animoca brings these two trends together. Its chief market development officer, Arvind Ramamurthy, said the move:

“strengthens the connections between institutional capital and digital assets”

The capital backdrop is tighter than the license suggests

However, the timing is not easy. According to Galaxy Research, in Q3 2026 about $4.5 billion was raised across 296 cryptocurrency startup deals. This is a decrease of 20% both in terms of acquired capital and the number of deals compared to the second quarter. Only 3 new cryptocurrency venture funds were formed, which is the lowest number of funds raised since Q3 2019, with a total value of around $1.3 billion.

The trend observed in the regional venture market is similar; however, data consists of differing industries. MAGNiTT observed a 7% drop in MENA’s venture funding and 33% in deal activity for the first nine months of 2026. Around 89% of the regional funding came from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In contrast to Galaxy’s global crypto statistics, MAGNiTT’s data also includes venture capital across industries.

A strategy wider than one license

The license is part of a wider institutional push. On October 9, Animoca and Franklin Templeton announced plans to bring tokenized real-world assets to NUVA, a vault marketplace co-incubated by Animoca and Nuva Labs. That project is separate from the ADGM permission.

Now comes the harder part: structuring a fund, arranging custody and persuading investors to commit. Until Animoca announces a fund and capital raised, regulatory access should not be mistaken for money flowing in.