BNY Crypto Custody Launch: $59T Bank Enters Abu Dhabi Market

BNY, the world's largest custodian bank with $59.4 trillion in assets under custody and administration, has launched regulated cryptocurrency custody services in the United Arab Emirates, partnering with Finstreet and ADI Foundation to establish its digital asset infrastructure inside Abu Dhabi Global Market. The bank is the first US globally systemically important bank to offer digital asset custody in the region, and the move brings institutional-grade infrastructure to one of the most active jurisdictions for crypto adoption outside the United States.

The initial offering covers custody of Bitcoin and Ether, the two assets with the deepest institutional adoption globally. BNY will integrate Finstreet's digital market ecosystem with ADI Foundation's sovereign-grade blockchain infrastructure to deliver what the partners describe as fully localised, compliant and scalable custody services for clients operating in the Gulf. Expansion into stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets is planned for a subsequent phase, reflecting the institutional demand for regulated onchain exposure that has driven record inflows into tokenized Treasuries and commodity-backed tokens globally this year.

ADGM Has Become the Gulf's Primary Landing Zone for Institutional Crypto Firms

Abu Dhabi Global Market has spent the past three years positioning itself as the Middle East's most credible jurisdiction for regulated digital asset activity. Its Financial Services Regulatory Authority has issued frameworks covering crypto asset businesses, digital security offerings and virtual asset intermediaries, giving international institutions a clear path to operate in the region under rules broadly compatible with those in the UK and EU. Coinbase, OKX, Crypto.com and Binance all hold ADGM licences or registrations. BNY's arrival adds a different kind of institution to that list, one whose core business is not exchange or brokerage but the custody and settlement infrastructure that sits beneath those activities.

BNY's UAE expansion sits inside a broader push the bank has been making into digital assets since it received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services in 2022 to hold Bitcoin and Ether on behalf of institutional clients. It was the first US bank of its size to receive that approval and has since expanded its digital asset custody offering to additional markets. The ADGM launch extends that footprint into the Gulf at a moment when the UAE government is actively building its own digital finance infrastructure, including a regulated dirham-backed stablecoin developed by IHC and local partners for government and institutional use.

The UAE Is Building State-Level Digital Finance Infrastructure to Match Its Private Sector

Abu Dhabi's appeal to institutions like BNY is not simply regulatory. The emirate has sovereign wealth funds, a growing family office ecosystem and a concentration of high-net-worth investors who have shown consistent appetite for digital asset exposure through regulated channels. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, has made direct investments in crypto infrastructure companies including Anchorage Digital, and the broader ADGM ecosystem has seen an acceleration in tokenization activity as institutions look to put Gulf-based capital to work in on-chain instruments.

For BNY, the partnership with Finstreet and ADI Foundation provides local distribution and regulatory standing without the cost of building entirely from scratch in a new jurisdiction. Finstreet brings the client-facing digital market infrastructure while ADI Foundation contributes the blockchain layer, and BNY sits above both as the institutional custodian providing the balance sheet credibility and compliance framework that large allocators require before placing assets with any custody provider. The structure mirrors arrangements BNY has used in other emerging digital asset markets and gives the partnership a path to scale without each party duplicating the other's core capabilities.

For context on how custody infrastructure connects to the broader tokenization push now underway across global capital markets, the DTCC's own on-chain settlement initiative illustrates the scale of the shift that institutions like BNY are positioning to support.