- Approximately forty senior decision-makers from global financial institutions, regulators, and infrastructure firms participated in the roundtable discussion.
- Participants spoke on the rising prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the financial sector, particularly the implications of more autonomous decision-making and execution decisions.
ADGM’s Registration Authority (RA) and Hashed Open Research (HOR), a policy think tank affiliated with Hashed, have collaborated on the creation of a new policy paper that provides a synthesis of the insights gained from the “Web3 Leaders Roundtable,” which was held in collaboration with Hashed during Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) 2025.
Approximately forty senior decision-makers from global financial institutions, regulators, and infrastructure firms participated in the roundtable discussion that was held behind closed doors. These decision-makers included representatives from 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 confluence of artificial intelligence and blockchain-based financial infrastructure was the primary topic of discussion, along with the practical impediments that are influencing the adoption of digital assets by traditional institutions.
AI Agents and Blockchain Infrastructure: Building Trusted Financial Systems at Scale
Participants spoke on the rising prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the financial sector, particularly the implications of more autonomous decision-making and execution decisions.
Participants made the observation that machine-to-machine interaction might potentially outperform infrastructure that was built for processes that were predominantly directed by humans, hence raising the necessity for systems that are safe, transparent, and able to function at scale. The research places a focus on reliable records and strong governance, with blockchain-based systems being increasingly regarded as a basis for trusted settlement.
It was also brought to everyone’s attention at the roundtable that tokenization has progressed beyond the process of digitizing existing assets and has begun to redesign market structure, which includes issuance, distribution, and settlement.
For instance, the DTCC has expressed its desire to tokenize the totality of the United States capital markets, and early adoption bridges such as tokenized gold products that draw flows from conventional gold exchange-traded funds are examples of such bridges. Personal artificial intelligence agents, often known as “digital twins,” may become an important interface for involvement in the digital economy, as was mentioned by the participants. Additionally, the participants said that the prudential and accounting treatment of stablecoins and other digital settlement assets may have an effect on adoption at scale.
Regulatory Uncertainty Remains the Primary Bottleneck for Institutional Adoption
As stated in the report, regulatory ambiguity continues to be a significant obstacle to the widespread implementation of the technology by institutions.
The challenges that were brought to light were risk-weighted asset charges for some digital-asset exposures under Basel capital standards, which may reach up to 1,250%, overlapping anti-money laundering and know your customer obligations across countries, and unresolved accounting and tax treatment.
In the research, stablecoins and real-time settlement are presented as the most verified and realistic avenues for expanding the on-chain financial infrastructure. Tokenization, on the other hand, underscores the need of robust secondary market liquidity and trustworthy redemption methods in order for it to generate genuine value and structural market improvements. If these conditions are not met, tokenization runs the danger of staying a technological wrapper.
One other thing that is mentioned in the research is that too prescriptive legislation at an early stage in the creation of a market might prevent experimentation from taking place before dangers and control points are evident. This highlights the need of well-balanced frameworks that provide clarity and trust while yet leaving opportunity for innovation.
H.E. Rashed Al Blooshi, Chief Executive Officer of ADGM Registration Authority (RA), said:
“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.”
“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.”
Both the ADGM website (which can be found here) and the Hashed Open Research website (which can be found at www.hashedopenresearch.com) include the whole report.
With its headquarters in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, ADGM is the most prominent international financial center (IFC) in the world. It is the biggest IFC in the Middle East and Africa in terms of the number of active licenses, making it one of the largest financial districts in the world in terms of size.
Additionally, ADGM is one of just a few jurisdictions in the world and the only one in the region that directly applies the reputable legal system of English Common Law.
