ADGM Gives Crypto Miners License Code 7230 in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi's financial free zone now has a rulebook for crypto miners. ADGM's Registration Authority said Wednesday that miners get their own commercial license, code 7230, and that mining is not a regulated financial service.

That puts miners under the company registrar. The financial regulator steps in only when client assets are involved.

One code for every consensus method

Operators need the commercial license to mine in or from the zone, the announcement says. The rules apply to proof-of-work, proof-of-stake and future consensus methods alike.

Mining for your own account is in. Holding other people's coins is a different matter. The guidance says pooled staking, custodial delegation or managing third-party assets may also need a permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Non-custodial infrastructure that never touches client assets does not, for now.

What miners hand over

Licensees must disclose their corporate structure and ultimate beneficial owners. They also file their on-chain reward addresses, which the registrar keeps confidential. Supervision scales with the size and risk of each operation, and firms can run global mining from an ADGM headquarters.

Phase one of two

The guidance followed an eight-week public consultation earlier this year, the state-run WAM news service reported. A second phase will build a full regulatory framework, with another market consultation "in due course."

"With this Guidance, ADGM is open to responsible crypto mining," said Rashed Al Blooshi, the registration authority's CEO.

In our opinion: the reward-address rule is the sleeper here. Hashrate is easy to promise on a slide, but a wallet address tends to tell the truth.