Animoca Brands:- NFT leader Animoca Brands has been on an aggressive expansion streak this month. The company recently announced its plans to go public on NASDAQ through a reverse merger – one of its most significant corporate milestones to date.
Now, it is accelerating its Middle East push with a major regulatory milestone that could reshape its global investment strategy. The Web3 gian revealed to Block of Fame that it has secured in-principle approval (IPA) from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
This clears the path for the company to become a regulated Fund Manager operating out of the UAE capital.
Animoca’s Fund Manager License in Dubai
Interestingly, he company already has a physical office in Dubai which it opened early this year.
Now, with the fund manager authorization, Animoca will be able to establish and operate regulated investment funds from ADGM. This likely includes venture funds dedicated to Web3, gaming, tokenization, the metaverse, and other digital asset sectors. This is also going to be useful for attracting institutional LPs who prefer regulated structures.
The approval will allow Animoca to manage Collective Investment Funds. Under ADGM/FSRA rules, “Managing a Collective Investment Fund” covers being legally accountable for the management of fund assets, or establishing, operating or winding up a collective investment vehicle.
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In practice that means Animoca – once authorised = can run investment funds, raise capital from eligible investors, make investment decisions on behalf of those funds, and provide the standard fund-management services subject to FSRA oversight.
However, it’s not the final licence yet. An IPA, which Animoca has received, is a formal regulatory milestone that says the regulator has reviewed the applicant and is prepared to grant a full licence if the firm meets specified conditions. But it’s a strong signal that the regulator is prepared and license is too closer to permit the activity once outstanding items are closed. More importantly, it opens the door to institutional capital—from sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and major investors who require regulated channels to enter the digital asset space.
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Expansion Push
For a company already recognized as one of the world’s most active investors in blockchain and digital assets, this comes as a major shift from being an operator and strategic investor to becoming a fully regulated asset manager.
In an earlier interview with Block of Fame for the Token2049 Special Edition Magazine, Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu had revealed that the company now has investments in over 600 portfolio companies. Siu also emphasized that Animoca’s investment universe has expanded far beyond its early focus on gaming and NFTs.
The firm’s investment universe now covers a wide spectrum of Web3 verticals including infrastructure, DeFi, real-world asset tokenization, and enterprise blockchain solutions.
The company is also increasingly leaning into tokenization as a core theme. The expansion comes at a time when NFT sales volume has fallen to about US$72.53 million—down roughly 5% from the previous week—highlighting the firm’s strategic shift into broader, more resilient digital asset sectors.
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Source: https://coingape.com/block-of-fame/pulse/animoca-to-expand-in-dubai-with-fund-manager-license/
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