Animoca Brands secures Abu Dhabi fund management authorization
The financial regulatory clearance represents an additional milestone in Animoca's transformation from its roots in blockchain gaming and venture capital activities into regulated institutional financial service provision.
On Monday, Animoca Brands announced it had obtained regulatory clearance to oversee investment vehicles for non-retail participants in Abu Dhabi, further developing the asset management operations of an organization that originated in mobile gaming before transitioning into blockchain gaming and venture capital activities.
The regulatory clearance, issued to its subsidiary Animoca Asset Management (AD) Limited through Abu Dhabi Global Market's Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), permits the entity to manage funds that aggregate capital from professional market participants rather than retail consumers.
The clearance made public on Monday became effective on Oct. 13, concluding a regulatory process that commenced with preliminary approval in November 2025. During the months between these milestones, Animoca additionally obtained a Dubai authorization in February enabling it to deliver virtual asset brokerage and investment management capabilities to institutional and qualified market participants.
The company known as Animoca Brands emerged as a separate entity from mobile game creator Animoca in 2014, originally focused on developing and distributing games featuring licensed intellectual property along with proprietary gaming titles. The organization pivoted its strategic direction toward blockchain technology in 2018 and constructed an investment collection that featured OpenSea, Dapper Labs and Axie Infinity creator Sky Mavis.
In an investor communication released in September, the organization outlined a more comprehensive evolution from its position as a digital asset and Web3 operator toward becoming a regulated financial services entity functioning across various jurisdictions, part of a wider movement by crypto-native enterprises into conventional financial services. Within this strategic framework, digital assets are assuming a more institutional function in its operations, with particular emphasis on stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization and treasury management.