Circle Secures ADGM Licence as UAE Strengthens Its Push Into Stablecoins

Alongside the approval, Circle announced that former Visa executive and renowned regional fintech leader Dr. Saeeda Jaffar joins as Managing Director for Circle Middle East and Africa-a deeper, longer-term commitment to growing its presence across the region.

These developments were announced in an official company press release published by Circle, which outlined the scope and strategic objectives of the license and the leadership appointment.

The approval was the result of a regulatory process initiated several months prior. In April 2025, Circle obtained an in-principle approval from the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), enabling it to commence the process of setting up a compliant operational structure while going through the final regulatory check. The ADGM publicly confirmed the preliminary approval with an official statement that said Circle is moving towards full authorization within the jurisdiction's regime for virtual asset activities.

By issuing the full FSP license, ADGM has empowered Circle to conduct regulated money-services activities from within a jurisdiction that has positioned itself as one of the world's most advanced digital asset and fintech hubs. The license empowers Circle to provide regulated payment services and blockchain-based settlement infrastructure to firms, fintechs, financial institutions, and developers at ADGM's international financial center. According to Circle, this would include on-chain settlement services using its regulated stablecoin offerings, including USDC and EURC, under a regime that places very specific focus on transparency, compliance, and consumer protection.

For Circle, this license is not just an operational milestone but a foundational step in furthering its already-regulated stablecoin model in regions with wide cross-border payment flows that are dollar-denominated and have historically cost a lot to process.

The UAE, but more importantly Abu Dhabi, has been positioning itself as a global center for digital-asset innovation through the formulation of clear regulatory frameworks, international partnerships, and successful incentives for fintech firms. ADGM's ruleset has collectively attracted custodians, exchanges, tokenization firms, and payment providers on its call for a well-defined regulatory environment for blockchain-based financial services. Circle's new license represents that trend directly.

The appointment of Dr. Saeeda Jaffar forms another layer in the company's expansion strategy. Till recently, as Visa's Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager, Gulf Cooperation Council, she had led the push for the advancement of digital payments, adoption of financial technology, and public-private partnerships across the region. According to Circle's announcement, her new role will be pivotal in accelerating regional adoption of blockchain-based financial infrastructure and in supporting institutional partners seeking to integrate stablecoins into treasury, settlement, and payment operations. Onboarding an executive with established relationships across Gulf regulators, banks, and payment providers reflects Circle's anticipation of significant growth opportunities across the Middle East and Africa.

The strategic timing is notable. The Middle East has become one of the fastest-growing regions globally in digital-asset regulation and institutional blockchain adoption. In their respective ways, ADGM and Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) have each built regulatory frameworks designed to attract global firms while enforcing the oversight standards major institutions expect. For companies like Circle, this environment offers a balance between innovation and compliance, a combination that has been harder to secure in markets with less regulatory clarity.

Circle's expansion in the region began earlier, long before the FSP license was granted. In late 2024, it established an entity within ADGM and entered into a strategic partnership with LuLu Financial Holdings, the leading remittance and cross-border payments provider headquartered in the Gulf. The partnership focuses on enabling on-chain settlement for remittance corridors that link the UAE, India, and Asia-regions with some of the highest volumes in the world. At the time, Circle said that the collaboration had been designed to modernize the flows of money by reducing friction in the settlement as well as enhancing the efficiency of the liquidity for cross-border money transfers. The full license now provides regulatory authority that strengthens that earlier partnership and potentially expands its scope.

To industry observers, the license represents another step towards more mainstream use of regulated stablecoins for cross-border and institutional settlements. Unlike unregulated crypto assets, Circle's stablecoins are designed to hold value through fully reserved backing and function inside a compliance-driven structure-some key attributes noted by many regulators as preconditions to institutional deployment. The ADGM approval further solidifies USDC's regulatory standing within one of the most active fintech corridors in the world.

The expanding profile of the UAE as a global digital-asset hub creates strategic opportunities for Circle, too. Long-term investment in digital finance, AI, tokenized markets, and cross-border payments infrastructure is part of the country's focus on economic diversification. In placing itself at the heart of that growth trajectory, Circle secures a regulated position early. Its stablecoins could go on to play an expanded role in trade finance, institutional liquidity management, and treasury flows, as well as remittance networks that are all undergoing digital transformation across the region.

The company frames this license and leadership appointment as part of a wide, "regulatory-first" strategy-to convey that compliance, and not rapid expansion in the absence of oversight, remains at the core of its global approach. To that end, that messaging also closely aligns with the positioning adopted by ADGM as a regulator committed to transparency, governance, and risk management standards.