Two Roads to Regulation: Coinbase’s India Comeback and Binance’s Abu Dhabi Bet

There are weeks when prices dominate the conversation, and there are weeks when policy quietly redraws the map. The last 24 hours fall firmly into the second category.

On one side, Coinbase has reopened full onboarding for Indian users after more than two years of disruption, but with a strict limitation: customers in India can trade only crypto-to-crypto pairs. There is no rupee deposit option yet, and the company is signalling that a regulated fiat on-ramp is a goal for 2026, not for tomorrow.

On the other side, Binance has secured a powerful trio of approvals in Abu Dhabi – covering exchange operations, clearing and custody, and brokerage activity – under the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). The structure effectively puts the firm’s international platform under direct supervision by a single, heavyweight regulator and opens the path to making Abu Dhabi its primary international hub.

These stories might look separate at first glance. In reality, they are two different answers to the same question: how do global platforms adapt when the centre of gravity shifts from "move fast" to "grow within the rulebook"?

1. Coinbase in India: A Narrow Door into a Giant Market

Coinbase’s original attempt to scale in India in 2022 ran into immediate friction. The launch of its app with direct integration into India’s popular UPI payment system was followed within days by banking restrictions and public caution from domestic authorities. The result was a sharp pullback: rupee deposits were paused, local partnerships reevaluated, and the India strategy shifted from full retail rollout to a slower, more cautious approach.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the firm’s playbook looks very different:

• In March 2025, Coinbase registered with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), aligning itself with the country’s anti-money-laundering and reporting framework and joining a group of international exchanges that chose to localise compliance rather than operate from the shadows.

• In October 2025, it launched an early-access programme for Indian users, testing the waters with a limited cohort.

• Now, after more than two years of restricted operations, the company has reopened full user onboarding in India, but only for crypto-to-crypto trading, transfers and on-chain activities. Cash deposits and direct rupee purchases remain unavailable for the time being.

On its public help pages for India, Coinbase explicitly lists what is and is not available. Supported features include trading one digital asset for another, sending and receiving assets, using the Coinbase Wallet to access decentralised applications, and holding USD Coin (USDC). Notably absent are cash balances, bank transfers, and card purchases. In other words: India has access to the "on-chain" layer of Coinbase, but not yet to the full fiat gateway.

1.1 Why Only Crypto-to-Crypto?

Limiting Indian users to crypto-to-crypto activity is not a technical constraint; it is a regulatory choice. India’s current approach to digital assets can be summarised as permitted but discouraged:

• Trading is allowed, but gains are taxed at a high flat rate and a transaction-level levy applies to many trades.
• There is no dedicated, comprehensive law for digital assets; instead, oversight is delivered through a combination of tax policy, FIU registration, and general financial regulations.
• The central bank has repeatedly expressed concerns about potential risks to monetary and financial stability, particularly around direct integration with domestic payment systems.

For a firm like Coinbase, that creates a clear trade-off. Offering full rupee on-ramps too early risks being perceived as challenging domestic policy. Staying entirely out of the market forfeits one of the world’s largest pools of developers and retail demand. The compromise is a staged re-entry:

1. Start with crypto-native functionality (swaps, transfers, on-chain activity) that does not rely on local banking rails.
2. Use FIU registration and transparent reporting to demonstrate that the platform can operate under India’s data and compliance standards.
3. Negotiate and build toward a regulated fiat integration in 2026, once the policy conversation has advanced and domestic partners are comfortable.

From a commercial perspective, this is slower than a full launch, but from a strategic perspective it is coherent: Coinbase is prioritising durability over speed in a jurisdiction where missteps can lead to long cooling-off periods.

1.2 India’s Importance in Coinbase’s Global Map

At India Blockchain Week in Bengaluru, APAC managing director John O’Loghlen emphasised the same theme the company has been repeating in blogs and interviews: India is not just a retail market; it is a developer and infrastructure market. The logic is straightforward:

• India is consistently ranked near the top of global adoption indices and has tens of millions of digital-asset holders, even under a heavy tax regime.
• The country has one of the world’s largest pools of software engineers and founders working on on-chain applications, infrastructure, and tooling.
• Public sector initiatives around digital public infrastructure – from UPI to identity systems – have created a population that is unusually comfortable with digital finance.

For Coinbase, building a presence in India is therefore less about capturing trading volume this quarter and more about positioning itself as one of the default gateways for builders, startups, and long-term savers once a clearer regulatory framework emerges. Reopening crypto-to-crypto trading is a way to maintain relevance during the waiting period, without forcing the fiat question before policymakers are ready.

2. Binance in Abu Dhabi: Turning Regulatory Capital into Strategic Capital

While Coinbase is navigating a cautiously permissive environment in India, Binance is pursuing a different playbook in the United Arab Emirates: anchor itself inside one of the most proactive regulatory regimes in the world and run a large portion of its international business from there.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has spent years positioning itself as a global hub for digital-asset finance. Its regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), was early to publish detailed rulebooks on custody, market infrastructure, and virtual-asset intermediaries. Binance initially engaged with ADGM in 2022, obtaining in-principle approvals and later a Financial Services Permission to offer custodial services to professional clients. Over time, that footprint has expanded and matured.

The latest development is a significant step up: Abu Dhabi has now granted Binance a set of three core licences that together cover:

• Exchange operations – the matching of orders and operation of an organised trading facility for digital assets.
• Clearing and custody – central handling of settlement obligations and safeguarding of customer assets under ADGM rules.
• Brokerage services – arranging deals in digital assets for clients and providing access to the exchange.

These approvals are not just symbolic. They imply that Binance’s main global platform – not a ring-fenced regional entity – is being brought under a comprehensive regulatory framework with ongoing supervisory oversight. International liquidity that previously flowed through a patchwork of entities and jurisdictions can now be consolidated, at least in part, under a single, well-defined rulebook.

2.1 Why Abu Dhabi Matters

Abu Dhabi offers a particular mix that is attractive to a company in Binance’s position:

• Regulatory clarity. ADGM has a detailed, public digital-asset framework and a track record of licensing institutional-grade custody and trading venues.
• Political support. The emirate’s leadership has explicitly framed digital assets and AI as strategic industries within its economic diversification plans.
• Capital alignment. In early 2025, Abu Dhabi-based firm MGX announced a $2 billion investment in Binance, paid in stablecoins and positioned as a long-term strategic partnership rather than a short-term trade.

The new FSRA licences effectively weave these threads together: regulatory clarity, political backing, and capital are all being channelled into one jurisdiction to create a credible international base for Binance’s operations. The firm has already signalled that it plans to shift more of its global coordination to Abu Dhabi, complementing existing permissions in Dubai and other centres.

2.2 What Changes for Users and for Regulators?

For users around the world, the day-to-day interface may look similar: the same app, the same web platform, the same set of markets. The differences appear in the background:

• Supervisory oversight. Core functions such as custody, clearing, and order-matching are now subject to continuous FSRA supervision, with requirements on governance, risk management, asset segregation, and reporting.

• Dispute-resolution pathways. Operating under ADGM rules gives users – particularly institutional clients – a clearer framework for how disputes, errors, or operational incidents are handled.

• Global access under a single licence stack. Instead of relying solely on local registrations in each market, Binance can serve many jurisdictions from Abu Dhabi under a single, coherent rulebook, while still respecting local restrictions where they exist.

For regulators elsewhere, the move is a double-edged sword. On one hand, having a major platform under the supervision of a recognised international financial centre can make cross-border cooperation easier. On the other hand, it can reinforce the sense that regulatory competition is real: jurisdictions that offer a credible, predictable framework stand to attract both corporate headquarters and the associated jobs, tax base, and ecosystem benefits.

3. Two Strategies, One Direction of Travel

Coinbase’s India relaunch and Binance’s Abu Dhabi licensing look very different, but they share underlying themes that are likely to become more common as the industry matures.

3.1 From "Permissionless Growth" to "Regulation as Product Design"

In the early 2010s, growth for exchanges often meant launching in as many markets as possible and dealing with regulatory questions later. That playbook is no longer viable at scale. Both stories illustrate a shift toward treating regulation as part of the product design rather than an external constraint:

• In India, Coinbase is scoping its feature set (crypto-to-crypto, no rupee rails yet) based on what is sustainable inside the current policy environment.
• In Abu Dhabi, Binance is scoping its legal structure (exchange, clearing, custody, brokerage under FSRA) to fit within a comprehensive rulebook that can support global operations.

In both cases, the decision is less about short-term user acquisition and more about building a structure that can survive scrutiny from central banks, securities regulators, and tax authorities.

3.2 Fragmented Jurisdictions, Converging Trends

India and Abu Dhabi sit at almost opposite ends of the regulatory spectrum:

• India allows trading but imposes heavy taxes and has not yet enacted a dedicated digital-asset statute. Its central bank is cautious, and its primary focus is on safeguarding the existing payment system and financial stability.
• Abu Dhabi has created a specialised financial zone where digital-asset activities are clearly defined, licensed, and supervised, and where the local strategy is to attract these businesses rather than merely tolerate them.

Yet the direction of travel is similar: both are moving toward clearer frameworks that set boundaries around what exchanges can and cannot do. The difference is one of pace and emphasis. India is tightening fiscal treatment and clarifying registration requirements while keeping broader questions open. Abu Dhabi has moved quickly to create an end-to-end framework and invite major players inside it.

4. How Builders and Investors Can Read These Signals

For market participants, the practical question is how to interpret these moves in their own decision-making. A few educational takeaways stand out.

4.1 For Indian Users and Startups

Coinbase’s limited relaunch suggests that:

• The international industry expects India to be a long-term core market, despite near-term policy ambiguity.
• On-chain activity – swaps, self-custody, and decentralised applications – is likely to grow faster than fully integrated fiat gateways in the short run.
• Domestic and international platforms that commit to FIU registration and transparent reporting may be better positioned when more comprehensive rules eventually arrive.

For developers, this is an opportunity: building products that assume crypto-native inflows rather than easy fiat access may be more resilient in India’s current environment.

4.2 For Global Users of Binance

Binance’s Abu Dhabi licences highlight a different set of considerations:

• Users can expect a greater emphasis on formal compliance and institutional-grade controls, especially around custody and clearing.
• The centre of gravity for the platform’s governance and supervision may shift further toward the Gulf, with Abu Dhabi serving as a bridge between Asia, Europe and Africa.
• Other jurisdictions may respond by clarifying their own frameworks, either to attract similar activity or to define how they interact with platforms regulated elsewhere.

For institutions, Abu Dhabi’s oversight can make it easier to justify using a platform like Binance as part of a diversified market-access strategy, provided internal risk and compliance teams are comfortable with ADGM’s standards.

5. The Bigger Picture: Liquidity, Jurisdiction and the Next Cycle

Looked at together, these developments point to a broader realignment in the digital-asset landscape:

• Liquidity is becoming more geographically "anchored". Instead of being entirely borderless, major platforms are deliberately tying their operations to specific regulatory regimes that can offer predictability and international recognition.

• Jurisdictions are competing on frameworks, not slogans. India, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Singapore, the European Union and the United States are all experimenting with different mixes of openness, consumer protection, and systemic-risk safeguards.

• Exchanges are being pulled into a more traditional financial-market structure. Licences for exchange operation, clearing, custody and brokerage are the same building blocks that underpin equity and derivatives markets; extending them to digital assets blurs the line between "crypto" and "traditional" finance.

For serious participants, this means that reading regulatory filings, press releases and licence announcements becomes just as important as watching charts. Understanding where and how a platform is supervised can be as critical as comparing fees or the number of listed assets.

Conclusion

Coinbase’s cautious re-opening in India and Binance’s fully fledged licensing in Abu Dhabi are not random, isolated decisions. They are two different manifestations of the same structural shift: digital-asset markets are moving from an era defined by speed and experimentation to one where regulatory architecture and market infrastructure sit at the core of strategy.

Whether you are an individual user, a builder, or an institution, the lesson is the same. It is no longer enough to ask, "Which platform has the most features?" The more important questions are:

• Which jurisdictions stand behind this platform, and what standards do they enforce?
• How does the platform adapt its product in markets with restrictive or evolving rules?
• Is the company building for short-term volume, or for long-term alignment with regulators and users?

In that sense, the headlines from India and Abu Dhabi are less about two companies and more about where the entire industry is heading: toward a world where technology, capital and regulation have to move in step, or not at all.

Disclaimer

This article is for educational and analytical purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. It does not recommend or endorse any specific asset, platform, jurisdiction, or strategy. Digital assets are volatile and may not be suitable for every investor. Always conduct your own research, consider your financial situation and risk tolerance, and consult qualified professionals before making any financial decisions.