Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2026: 7 to 10 December, Binance and Ledger CEOs on the bill

Hosted by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2026 runs from 7 to 10 December 2026 at The Grand Steps on Al Maryah Island, the financial district where ADGM sits. It is the fifth edition, held under the patronage of Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, with the theme “The Capital Community, Powered by Partnerships”. Tickets start at US$500 on the official site.

This is not a crypto conference. Sovereign funds, banks, insurers and asset managers fill most of the programme. But one of the four forum days, Fintech Abu Dhabi on 9 December, covers digital assets, and the first speaker list includes the chief executives of Binance, Ledger and Paxos and the president of the Solana Foundation. Last year the same week produced Binance’s ADGM licence and a BlackRock tokenisation deal.

Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2026 programme, day by day

The organisers have not published session times yet, but the ticket page sets out how the four days split:

Day three is the one for crypto readers. On 24 September 2026 the Abu Dhabi Media Office said it would cover AI, fintech, digital assets and financial innovation, with sessions on stablecoins and tokenisation. A Global Financial Regulators Summit, with regulators from more than 50 countries expected, will also discuss tokenisation; its date was not given. The Arab Monetary Fund plans to hold its Regional FinTech Working Group during the week.

The same release counts 75 events across eight stages, against 60 events on six stages in 2025, and ten new platforms. Among them are an Abu Dhabi Real Estate Summit, a CNBC AI Capital Stack Summit, a Next Three Billion Summit with Semafor, a Treasury Leadership Forum and a US-UAE Trade Corridor Forum. Binance appears among the partners next to UBS, Standard Chartered, Hanwha Finance and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, though the release does not say what the exchange will do. There will also be a dialogue focused on the European Union, one of four country and region tracks with China, South Korea and the United States.

Speakers confirmed so far

More than 200 speakers were confirmed by 13 August 2026, when the first line-up came out; the organisers expect over 800 by December. Their second release, on 24 September, counted more than 300 confirmed financial leaders representing over US$61 trillion in assets. The digital-asset names are Richard Teng, chief executive of Binance; Pascal Gauthier, chairman and chief executive of the French wallet maker Ledger; Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation; and Charles Cascarilla, co-founder and chief executive of Paxos, a stablecoin issuer.

Most of the list is mainstream finance. It includes Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, chairman of ADGM and of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development; Oliver Bäte of Allianz; Tan Su Shan of DBS; Ron O’Hanley of State Street; Bill Winters of Standard Chartered; Jenny Johnson of Franklin Templeton, a manager that runs tokenised funds; and Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara of Temasek. Chamath Palihapitiya of Social Capital is filed under technology. In August, Al Zaabi said the week should be judged by what its conversations lead to.

ADFW 2026 tickets: US$500 to US$10,000

Four passes are on sale on adfw.com, read on 19 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars and include VAT; no deadline or price rise is announced.

A reader who only wants the digital-asset day can buy a Single Day pass for Fintech Abu Dhabi. The euro cost depends on the exchange rate and your card’s fees on the day of payment. The opening ceremony itself is by invitation for Executive holders; Full Week holders watch it on a screen.

What the 2025 edition delivered

The Abu Dhabi Media Office published the final figures for the 2025 week on 28 December 2025:

The event count is not consistent across the organisers’ own releases: 68 events in December 2025, 60 in the September 2026 comparison. For crypto, two announcements counted. On 8 December 2025 Binance said ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) had approved its global platform through three entities: Nest Exchange as a Recognised Investment Exchange, Nest Clearing and Custody as a Recognised Clearing House, and Nest Trading as a broker-dealer. Gulf News reported that the platform was due to start operating under the licence on 5 January 2026, subject to final preparations. The media office called Binance the first crypto exchange licensed under ADGM’s framework.

On 11 December, BlackRock signed memorandums of understanding with Finstreet and ADI Foundation, two entities of the IHC group, to explore tokenised markets, with BlackRock acting as adviser, TradeArabia reported. Sunidhi Pasan, founder and group chief executive of Finstreet, said “tokenisation is becoming the operating system of global markets”. The media office also listed Crypto.com, Tether and Zodia among the companies that used the week to announce collaborations, without detail.

ADGM rules behind the December talks

Crypto firms in ADGM need FSRA authorisation. The regulator also has a framework for fiat-referenced tokens, its term for stablecoins, announced in December 2024: issuers must hold reserves, get independent attestation, run stress tests and let holders redeem at face value, Finance Middle East reported. In September 2025 the FSRA consulted on accepting foreign stablecoins and dirham stablecoins approved by the UAE central bank. Sources disagree on when the stablecoin rules took effect, so we give no date.

The newest file is DeFi. On 6 October 2026 the FSRA published Consultation Paper No. 5 of 2026, proposed guidance on how authorised firms should handle the risks of using DeFi protocols and venues: governance, vetting of counterparties, monitoring, financial crime controls, breach reporting, record keeping and protection of client assets. Comments close on 30 November 2026, a week before the week opens. Whether the paper comes up on stage is not known. For a primer on the tokens at the centre of these rules, see our guide to stablecoins.

Venue and getting there

The Grand Steps are on Al Maryah Island, next to ADGM Square, the address the organiser gives in its site footer. Local time is UTC+4 all year, three hours ahead of Paris and Rome in December. Visa rules for the UAE depend on nationality: check them with the UAE authorities or your airline before booking.

Why it matters in France, Italy and Africa

For European readers the main point is legal. Binance’s ADGM licence is separate from the EU’s MiCA regime: French and Italian users are served under EU rules, and an Abu Dhabi authorisation does not change that. Our MiCA guide explains what those rules cover. French readers have a home-grown name on the bill too: Ledger, the Paris-based hardware wallet company, sends its chief executive.

African outlets followed the 2025 licence story, among them Capital FM in Kenya. Readers there and in Europe can watch for four kinds of news in December: stablecoin announcements under the FSRA framework, further FSRA licences, tokenisation agreements, and what the industry says about the DeFi paper after its comment period. These are things to watch, not forecasts.

A quieter December calendar in the UAE

Bitcoin MENA has moved to 2027, with dates still to come, after what its organisers call extensive discussions with local partners. That leaves the Abu Dhabi week as the main UAE finance gathering in December with a digital-asset thread. For a crypto-only show, Blockchain Life 2026 in Dubai runs on 1 and 2 December, the week before.

What is still unknown

As of 19 October 2026, ADGM had not published session times or the full speaker list, and it had not said which day the regulators’ summit takes place or what Binance’s partnership involves. Daily opening hours are not on the site. We will update this page when the programme is out.