ABU DHABI, UAE, April 28th, 2026 - The Registration Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM RA) and Hashed Open Research (HOR), the research arm of Hashed, have jointly published a policy report that condenses the discussions and conclusions from a closed-door "Web3 Leaders Roundtable" convened during Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) 2025.
The roundtable brought together roughly 40 senior decision-makers representing a cross-section of global finance, regulation, and infrastructure. Participants included the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), BlackRock, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Franklin Templeton, Circle, Consensys, Solana Foundation, the European Commission, and the Government of Liechtenstein. The discussions examined the convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain-enabled financial infrastructure and identified practical constraints that influence institutional uptake of digital assets.
AI Agents, Machine-to-Machine Activity, and the Role of Blockchain
Attendees explored how increasing autonomy in AI-driven financial activity could challenge existing infrastructure that was principally designed for human-led processes. The report highlights a growing expectation that machine-to-machine activity will place demands on systems to be secure, transparent, and capable of operating at scale.
According to the report, participants emphasised the importance of verifiable records and strong governance constructs. Within that framing, blockchain-based systems were increasingly seen as a potential foundation for trusted settlement rails capable of supporting the demands of more automated market participation.
The roundtable also observed that tokenisation is moving beyond simple digital replicas of legacy assets toward reshaping core market structures - including issuance, distribution, and settlement processes. Examples cited in the report include DTCC's stated aspiration to tokenize the entirety of the U.S. capital markets and the emergence of tokenised gold products that have drawn flows from traditional gold ETFs.
Participants flagged that prudential and accounting treatment for stablecoins and other digital settlement assets will materially affect the pace and scale of institutional adoption. The report also notes an expectation that personal AI agents - described as "digital twins" - could emerge as a primary interface for participation in the digital economy.
Regulatory Uncertainty as the Primary Bottleneck
The report identifies regulatory uncertainty as the leading impediment to broader institutional engagement with digital assets. Specific challenges raised include severe risk-weighted asset charges for certain digital-asset exposures under Basel capital rules, which the report states can reach up to 1,250 percent, overlapping anti-money laundering and know-your-customer requirements across jurisdictions, and unresolved accounting and tax treatments.
While the roundtable framed stablecoins and real-time settlement as the most validated and practical routes to scaling on-chain financial infrastructure, it also emphasised conditions that must be met for tokenisation to deliver substantive market upgrades. In particular, the report notes the need for deep secondary market liquidity and dependable redemption mechanisms; without these, tokenisation risks being a merely technical wrapper around existing market liquidity constraints.
The authors also caution against overly prescriptive regulation in the early stages of market development. The report states that strict rules implemented before operational risks and control points are observable may stifle experimentation. It calls for balanced frameworks that provide clarity and confidence while allowing space for innovation to reveal practical risk profiles and control mechanisms.
Leadership and Policy Perspectives
"This report reflects ADGM’s commitment to convening global perspectives that help shape the future of finance. As AI and blockchain become increasingly embedded in financial systems and participate directly in economic activity, governance cannot be an afterthought. The report highlights the control points that matter most in practice, including identity, permissions, auditability, and rights clarity, so that innovation can scale responsibly and remain aligned with market integrity. The focus must remain on building systems that are trusted, well-governed, and designed to operate at scale." - H.E. Rashed Al Blooshi, Chief Executive Officer, ADGM Registration Authority (RA)
"This was an occasion where global leaders from regulators, institutional investors, and infrastructure builders came together to discuss how capital market structure should be redesigned and who should lead that redesign, addressing substantive policy directions at the intersection of AI and blockchain," said Simon Seojoon Kim, CEO of Hashed. "We hope this report serves as a concrete reference for the design of digital financial infrastructure."
Implications Highlighted in the Report
The report consolidates several practical implications for market participants and policymakers. First, it presents stablecoins and real-time settlement as pragmatic starting points for on-chain infrastructure that can be validated at scale. Second, it underscores that tokenisation's ability to produce structural market improvements depends on parallel development of liquidity pools and redemption frameworks. Third, it stresses that governance, identity, permissions, and auditability must be addressed up front to allow any technological advances to operate within a trusted financial ecosystem.
Participants supplied concrete examples to illustrate these points, including the aspiration by an industry infrastructure provider to tokenize broad swathes of capital markets and the early market movement of tokenised gold drawing flows from established ETF products. These examples were used to anchor discussion of where market structure redesign is already underway and where open questions on prudential and accounting treatment remain.
How the Roundtable Was Structured and Who Attended
The meeting was closed to the public and designed to elicit candid perspectives from senior leaders across a range of institutions - from sovereign and institutional investors to market infrastructure providers and international regulators. The participant list included major institutional investors, asset managers, market utilities, payments and tokenisation firms, and international policy bodies, reflecting a cross-section of entities that would be affected by changes to capital markets architecture.
The report synthesises that input rather than prescribing a single policy path, presenting the range of views and the practical control points that participants considered most material to the safe scaling of digital financial infrastructure.
Availability
The full policy report has been made available on the ADGM website and through the Hashed Open Research portal at www.hashedopenresearch.com.
About ADGM
ADGM is an international financial centre based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is noted as one of the world’s largest financial districts by size and the largest international financial centre in the Middle East and Africa by the number of active licences. ADGM applies the legal framework of English Common Law and governs both Al Maryah and Al Reem Islands, collectively designated as Abu Dhabi’s financial free zone. ADGM positions itself as a connector between the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia region and global markets and states that its ecosystem supports innovation, sustainable growth, and long-term economic resilience.
About Hashed
Hashed, established in 2017, is a web3 venture capital firm focused on investment and research in startups and decentralized protocols. The Hashed team operates offices in Seoul, San Francisco, Singapore, Bangalore, and Abu Dhabi and describes itself as an early supporter of pioneering blockchain teams, providing hands-on support to portfolio companies to help founders pursue global adoption.
Media Contacts
For ADGM media queries: [email protected]
For Hashed communications: Wooster Han, [email protected]