Wall Street giant BNY Mellon accelerates global crypto expansion with Abu Dhabi custody partnership targeting institutional digital asset services

BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custody bank, is expanding its digital asset business into Abu Dhabi through a new strategic collaboration with local players Finstreet Limited and the ADI Foundation, anchored in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) financial free zone. Under the plan, BNY will provide institutional-grade digital asset custody for UAE clients, initially covering bitcoin and ether for Finstreet’s trading and clearing ecosystem, with a roadmap to add stablecoins, tokenized real‑world assets and other regulated digital instruments over time, subject to definitive agreements and regulatory approvals. The partnership combines BNY’s role as the first U.S. global systemically important bank (G‑SIB) to offer digital asset custody with Finstreet’s multilateral trading facility and clearing infrastructure and ADI Foundation’s “sovereign-grade” layer‑2 blockchain, ADI. Finstreet is part of International Holding Company (IHC) via Sirius International, tying the initiative into one of Abu Dhabi’s most influential conglomerate groups. Operating from ADGM, which has positioned itself as a regulated hub for digital assets, the collaboration is framed as a way to “localize” digital asset custody in the UAE while maintaining global institutional standards of compliance, security and scalability. This move is significant on two levels: for BNY, it advances a broader global crypto and tokenization strategy by extending its custody footprint into one of the most crypto‑friendly regulatory environments; for Abu Dhabi and the UAE, it strengthens ambitions to be a leading regulated digital asset center, using large incumbent institutions rather than only native crypto firms. If fully implemented, the platform is expected to support not just basic crypto custody but also future tokenized financial products and blockchain‑enabled market infrastructure in the region.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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