Zodia Custody — an institutional-grade digital asset custodian originally spun out of SC Ventures (Standard Chartered) — has expanded its Abu Dhabi licence through subsidiary Tungsten Custody Solutions. ADGM's Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) has approved a Variation of Permission so Tungsten can now custody digital securities, starting with tokenised money market funds.
What ADGM FSRA actually approved
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) — ADGM's financial regulator — approved a Variation of Permission for Tungsten Custody Solutions Limited, the regional UAE subsidiary of Zodia Custody. As a result, Tungsten's existing Financial Services Permission now covers custody of digital securities on top of its existing permission to custody digital assets.
Variation of Permission is a standard ADGM regulatory route: a licensed firm does not have to apply for a brand-new licence; instead, it adds a new regulated activity to its existing licence. FSRA still reviews capital, controls and operating procedures relevant to the new activity, but the scope and timeline are tighter than a greenfield application.
What "digital securities" means in ADGM
In FSRA's terminology, "digital securities" refers to traditional financial instruments — shares, bonds, fund units — issued in tokenised form on a blockchain. The distinction matters: digital securities are not cryptocurrencies. They are the same equities and fixed income instruments institutions already hold, with a different record-of-ownership technology.
Until now, Tungsten's ADGM permission covered custody of digital assets — crypto and adjacent instruments. Digital securities widen the scope. For an institutional client — a fund, bank treasury or family office — this unlocks the ability to custody tokenised fund units, tokenised bonds and tokenised equities with a regulated custodian in Abu Dhabi, rather than relying on a trading venue's own book.
Tokenised money market funds — first focus
According to the company, Tungsten will start with tokenised money market funds. These are blockchain-native units of short-duration dollar instruments — US Treasury bills, commercial paper, bank deposits. Large managers (BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Ondo) have launched tokenised money market vehicles over the past couple of years, and demand from corporate treasuries, funds and family offices has grown. In practical terms this is a digital "cash equivalent" yielding close to SOFR.
The company says the next focus is tokenised equities and fixed income — a smaller segment today than tokenised money markets, but with faster expected growth.
The market context: $16T RWA by 2030, $750bn tokenised equities by 2028
Phil Langton, Senior Executive Officer at Tungsten Custody Solutions, cited an industry forecast that tokenised real-world assets (RWA) could reach $16 trillion by 2030. Richard Clark, CEO of Zodia Custody, added that the approval lets the firm offer bank-grade custody for tokenised securities and tokenised commodities in ADGM, with demand for both expected to grow across the region.
A separate figure the company references: tokenised equities could reach $750 billion by the end of 2028. These are industry projections cited by the company, not FSRA or ADGM official forecasts, so read them as a signal of industry expectations rather than a guarantee. Even allowing for optimism, the direction is clear: institutional players are preparing for traditional securities to migrate onto blockchain rails, and UAE regulators are positioning early.
What this means for UAE businesses and investors
Within a single week in the UAE, two events converged on the same theme — institutional-grade custody of digital assets inside a regulated perimeter. On 13 October 2026, Standard Chartered's DIFC branch, under its DFSA licence, launched custody of the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin. On 14 October 2026, ADGM FSRA expanded Tungsten/Zodia's permission to cover digital securities. The result is a two-pole configuration: Dubai (DIFC/DFSA) + Abu Dhabi (ADGM/FSRA) — two separate UAE financial regulators, both pulling in the same direction.
For institutional clients and funds, the practical signal is that tokenised securities instruments can now be placed with a regulated UAE custodian, rather than needing to park them in a European or Singapore perimeter. For family offices and large private wealth clients, access to tokenised money market funds through a bank-grade custodian becomes a real option rather than a theoretical one.
At an operational level this still requires the right legal structure. If you are weighing which free zone fits a digital-asset business, note that ADGM and DIFC are the two UAE financial free zones built for finance and digital assets, while mainland crypto operators in Dubai sit under a different regulator — the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) licence, which should not be confused with ADGM or DIFC. For a broader comparison of commercial free zones used by non-financial founders, see our walk-through of Meydan Free Zone vs IFZA vs DMCC for 2026 setup, cost and visas.
Who Zodia Custody and Tungsten are
Zodia Custody is an institutional digital asset custodian headquartered in the UK, with permissions and registrations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The firm was spun out of SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's innovation and ventures arm, and positions itself as a bank-grade custody provider for banks, asset managers, corporate treasuries and large institutional clients. Tungsten Custody Solutions is the group's ADGM-registered entity for UAE operations.
For Zodia Custody, the ADGM expansion is another node in its regional licensing footprint. For the UAE, it is one more regulated institutional custodian capable of handling tokenised securities, reinforcing Abu Dhabi's role as a digital-asset financial hub alongside Dubai.
This article is not investment advice or a recommendation. For decisions, rely on primary FSRA documentation, current Zodia Custody announcements, and consult a licensed legal or financial adviser in the UAE.
