Binance concludes industry-leading event in Dubai with landmark ADGM approval

Cryptocurrency exchange approved for licence to provide global services from Abu Dhabi

Binance - the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange - has followed its most significant annual event with news that it has been granted a licence to provide global services from Abu Dhabi.

Many of the industry's smartest minds shared their insights at Binance Blockchain Week Dubai 2025 last week.

And the major return to Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena was capped by Binance receiving formal approval for its global platform from ADGM’s regulatory authority.

Granted by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, the licence covers Binance.com via three separate regulated entities – an exchange, a clearing house and a broker-dealer – operating within Abu Dhabi financial centre ADGM. The company revealed the update in a statement on Monday.

Richard Teng, co-chief executive of Binance, said: “This licence provides regulatory clarity and legitimacy, enabling Binance to support its global operations from ADGM.

“Achieving regulatory status through ADGM’s respected framework reflects our deep commitment to compliance, transparency and user protection.”

Key event brought industry leaders

Binance Blockchain Week Dubai 2025 set the tone for the landmark announcement. The flagship event is the pinnacle of Binance’s 1,500 global gatherings and featured a compelling two-day line-up.

A packed schedule of ideas, debate, and real-world progress covered market, policy, and technology insight, including global leaders shaping the future of digital assets.

It is the second year Dubai has hosted Binance Blockchain Week, drawing thousands of attendees from around the world to hear from leading experts, breakthrough builders, and major industry voices.

Binance said the event programme was built around real-world adoption, with sessions spanning Bitcoin, stablecoins, DeFi, regulation, Web3 infrastructure, payments, and next-generation products.

The conversation began on the main stage under the theme of Big Vision and Industry Leadership.

Binance’s Teng set the scene for where digital assets are heading, and the UAE’s growing leadership in global innovation. The inspirational theme continued with Omar Sultan Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, who outlined how digital foundations being built today will directly influence competitiveness in the years ahead.

Strategy’s founder and executive chairman, Michael Saylor, maintained the momentum, marking his first appearance at a crypto event in the UAE with an exclusive keynote titled The Undeniable Case for Bitcoin. It provided a focused look at why he believes BTC remains the strongest asset of the digital era, followed by a rare live community AMA (ask me anything) session.

The increasingly high-profile subject of institutional adoption took centre stage when leaders from BlackRock, Citi, Franklin Templeton, Julius Baer, and Binance Institutional detailed how client portfolios are evolving, what allocation looks like in different markets, and where digital assets fit as traditional finance modernises.

Audiences heard a series of focused updates on next-generation digital-asset technology with BNB Chain unpacking the growth of its ecosystem and the new opportunities emerging for builders.

Bringing motor racing star power to the stage, Binance CMO Rachel Conlan was joined by BWT Alpine Formula One Team driver Pierre Gasly for an informal sit-down conversation on the convergence of sports and crypto. This came ahead of a discussion with the stars of the Binance short film series Humans of Binance, sharing how crypto has shaped their lives.

Day one moved onto the core of digital money, specifically how stablecoins scale, how compliance frameworks form, and how US regulatory perspectives are influencing global innovation, featuring Tether co-founder Reeve Collins and Payal Patel, VP Risk & Compliance, at Circle.

A session titled The Path Ahead was set to deliver a key highlight, gathering Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse, Solana’s Lily Liu, and Binance’s Richard Teng to discuss a clearer regulatory landscape and the opportunities it unlocks.

Later sessions dived deeper into infrastructure, from Web3 architecture with Polygon, Aptos, Algorand, and Babylon, to real-world asset tokenisation with Lumia, plus a reflective look at the industry’s defining moments.

The industry’s renowned builders, including Eli Ben Sasson, co-founder of Zcash, George Kikvadze, executive vice chairman of Bitfury Group, and Bruce Fenton of Satoshi Roundtable, were part of a packed agenda.

An action-packed first day concluded with entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan examining digital communities and emerging network-driven structures for a wide-angle view of what could come next. Binance planned an opening day that also spotlighted key event partners, with Celo joining as Title Sponsor and Solayer and Nexpace as Platinum+ sponsors to deliver major keynote moments across the two-day programme.

“From payments innovation and high-performance Web3 infrastructure to next-generation interoperable systems, all three partners helped anchor the event’s focus on real-world adoption and the technologies shaping the future of digital assets,” said a Binance event spokesman.

Essential leadership insight

Day two of Binance Blockchain Week Dubai 2025 presented a main stage theme of Markets, Builders & The Great Debate, opening with macro context as Real Vision’s Raoul Pal outlined the “hidden edges” shaping 2026’s market environment with Coin Bureau.

A follow-on discussion examined how markets evolve on-chain, with Rug Radio, PancakeSwap and Opinion Labs.

Nexpace, the blockchain arm of the global game developer Nexon, offered a look at how seamless, interoperable digital infrastructure is being built. This came ahead of a broader conversation with Celo, Ethena, Hashed, 1inch, and Cypher Capital delving into how payments, stable-value assets, and liquidity are converging into a unified on-chain financial stack.

AI-led trading insights from Nansen and IntoTheCryptoverse fed into a practical discussion on payment rails featuring Mastercard, Ripple, and TON, focusing on speed, settlement, and real-world connectivity.

And cross-discipline thinking shaped late morning talk as Apeiron Investment Group’s Christian Angermayer and BIO Protocol’s Paul Kohlhaas examined how AI, biotech, and crypto could reshape research, funding models, and scientific coordination.

Thursday afternoon saw Bitmine’s Tom Lee deliver a keynote exploring why the Ethereum network remains a structural pillar for builders and markets, followed by a session on compliance and user protection featuring UAE leaders in conversation with Binance general legal counsel Eleanor Hughes.

Stablecoin design, perpetual DEXs, and digital-forward nations came into focus during the event, alongside a showcase of early-stage builders from YZi Labs, reflecting the breadth of experimentation and adoption across global markets.

A live discussion between CZ and Peter Schiff on two competing views of the future of value was billed as day two’s headline moment under the banner The Big Debate: Bitcoin vs. Tokenised Gold. A closing keynote from Yi He, meanwhile, pledged to “transition” the audience into the YZi Labs Demo Day, bringing emerging founders and project teams to the stage.

Compelling crypto creativity

Running alongside the Main Stage across both days, the Innovation Stage gave a closer look at the tools and technologies being built right now.

Under the theme of Builders, Products & Practical Progress, the programme featured practical education and ecosystem development with Binance Academy and MENA academic partners; infrastructure insights from WalletConnect, Ledger, Heima, NXPC, TON; and gaming, AI and in-game economy innovation from YGG, The Sandbox, Sei.

Innovation Stage audiences were able to explore data, scalability, and cloud perspectives from Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft, and Alibaba Cloud; deep dive into next-gen blockchains, new liquidity models, and the “physical internet”; and witness rapid founder pitches, community discussions, and the Web3 Pitch Showdown.

“It’s the stage where attendees see how emerging ideas translate into real applications,” explained the event spokesman.

Certainly, Binance Blockchain Week Dubai 2025 proved timely for Monday’s announcement. Binance.com aims to start operating its ADGM-regulated activities on January 5.

The UAE has been seeking to become a global hub for digital assets, with robust regulatory frameworks in place in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to attract key players and offer more support for investors.

Operating under ADGM’s financial services regime will ensure Binance users “benefit from high standards of oversight and consumer protection as the platform scales into its next phase of institutional and retail adoption”, the company added in its statement.

This page was produced by The National in partnership with Binance.