How has ADX progressed over the past year, and what best defines its current stage of development?
The year 2025 marked the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange’s transition from scale to significance.
The year coincided with ADX’s 25th anniversary and underscored its evolution from a local exchange with 12 listed companies in 2000 to a globally connected market with more than 200 listed securities today. ADX is now among the world’s top 20 exchanges by market capitalisation, exceeding USD 850 billion in 2025, and serves more than 1.2 million investors from over 200 nationalities. This shift reflects not just growth in size, but sustained, fundamentals-driven development anchored in market quality and long-term confidence.
Between 2020 and 2025, ADX added approximately 130 new securities, with IPOs raising around USD 16 billion. Momentum continued in 2025, with 20 new listings further broadening the investment universe. Corporate performance remained strong: aggregate net profits exceeded USD 38 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, up 18.6% year on year. Liquidity was equally resilient, with average daily trading value reaching approximately USD 407 million, around 10% higher than in 2024, supporting activity without excess volatility.
Institutional investors remain central to the market’s structure. Sovereign wealth funds, pension and retirement funds, and global asset managers are active across primary and secondary markets, typically investing with long-term horizons. Their sustained participation supports liquidity, resilience, and orderly price formation – characteristics consistently highlighted by the IMF and OECD as hallmarks of well-functioning capital markets.
Retail participation has also deepened, supported by digital access and product innovation. With 20 exchange-traded funds listed – the largest and most active ETF market in the region – ADX has expanded access to transparent investment strategies, encouraging more informed and durable engagement.
Taken together, ADX now reflects a market defined by institutional depth, a more sophisticated retail base, continuous innovation, and a clear emphasis on sustainable growth – signalling a capital market that has moved decisively beyond scale towards greater market impact and lasting significance.
What structural development most strengthened ADX’s market infrastructure in 2025?
The formal establishment of the ADX Group represented a structural evolution of the market’s operating model. The Group brings together ADX, AD Clear as the central counterparty clearing house, and AD CSD as the central securities depository, aligning governance, risk management, technology strategy, and operational oversight across the transaction lifecycle, from trade execution through clearing and settlement.
This integrated structure strengthens post-trade resilience, settlement certainty, capital efficiency, and scalability, all of which are critical for institutional investors assessing market risk and execution reliability. It also enhances transparency, accountability, and business continuity across market infrastructure.
As part of this transformation, the ADX Group introduced a new trading engine that increased system performance and resilience by up to 400%. The upgrade modernised the trading architecture, enabled multi-asset trading on a single platform, and supported high-frequency and algorithmic trading, new order types, and negotiated deals, improving execution quality, liquidity, and price discovery.
Which milestones best reflect ADX’s international relevance and investor proposition?
Several developments in 2025 reinforced the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange’s appeal to global investors. Its 25th anniversary marked the exchange’s evolution from a regional venue into one of the world’s top 20 by market capitalisation, supported by an investor base spanning more than 200 nationalities. That scale offers international investors confidence not only in size, but in depth, resilience, and continuity.
Product expansion has been central to this shift. ADX became the first exchange in the Arab world to cross-list two US-domiciled ETFs already trading on the New York Stock Exchange, adding nearly USD 10bn in assets under management. It also listed the region’s first AI and quantum computing thematic ETFs and the first digital bond in the MENA region, signalling a move beyond regional exposure towards diversified global portfolios.
Income remains a core differentiator. Since 2020, ADX-listed companies have distributed more than USD 87bn in cash dividends. The FTSE ADX Dividend Stars Index – the region’s first income-focused benchmark – comprises 17 liquid stocks that paid over USD 12.8bn in 2025, more than 70% of total dividends, with an average yield of 5.28% versus 1.5% to 3% for global peers.
How does ADX leverage digital innovation and AI to broaden market access and enhance participation across its investor base?
ADX leverages digital innovation and AI to expand market access, improve transparency, and support broader participation among institutional and retail investors. As trading becomes increasingly data-driven, accessibility and clarity are essential to informed engagement and long-term confidence.
AI-enabled tools play a central role by converting complex disclosures and market data into concise, user-friendly insights, making information more accessible to investors, analysts, and other market participants. These tools reduce information barriers, support more efficient analysis, and enhance transparency across the market.
At the same time, ADX works closely with leading digital platforms and global brokers such as eToro, Thndr, xCube, and Interactive Brokers to expand access to ADX-listed securities beyond the UAE’s borders. Through these partnerships, international and digitally native investors can engage with the market more seamlessly, using familiar platforms and infrastructure.
Together, digital technology and strategic partnerships reinforce ADX’s role as an open, connected, and accessible marketplace – broadening participation, strengthening market integrity, and connecting global capital with opportunities in Abu Dhabi.
What role does Tabadul play in ADX’s regional and cross-border strategy?
Tabadul is a central pillar of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange’s regional and cross-border connectivity strategy. Launched in 2022, it is the MENA region’s first mutual market-access platform, enabling cross-border trading while preserving local market structures, liquidity, and regulatory oversight. Investors trade through existing local brokers, accounts, currencies, and settlement systems.
ADX has signed 10 Tabadul agreements, with six markets currently live and trading. The platform provides access to more than USD 1 trillion in combined market capitalisation, over 660 listed companies, 7.6 million investors, and more than 17 trading members.
Crucially, Tabadul also enables cross-border participation in IPO subscriptions, extending access beyond secondary markets. By supporting both primary and secondary market access without fragmenting liquidity, it offers a scalable, exchange-led model for regional integration, dual listings, ETF collaboration, data sharing, and market interoperability – positioning Abu Dhabi as a bridge between regions.
Looking ahead, what underpins confidence in ADX’s trajectory, and how will this shape the exchange’s priorities in the coming year?
Confidence in ADX’s trajectory is grounded in structural progress, with digital evolution representing a natural extension of that progress.
First, ADX operates within a uniquely strong macro and policy framework. Abu Dhabi’s long-term economic vision, sovereign strength, and commitment to capital market development give the ADX Group the stability to invest in future-ready infrastructure rather than short-term fixes. This enables the Group to lead – not follow – global market evolution. ADX aligns its market infrastructure, regulation, governance, and post-trade capabilities with international industry expectations.
Looking ahead, ADX’s priorities for 2026 focus on deepening value. The ADX Group will continue to invest in world-class digital market infrastructure to lower friction, improve transparency, and support scale. It will also continue to widen and deepen engagement with like-minded partners, including the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), to better serve the needs of the global marketplace.
Together, these priorities position the Group to continue broadening access, supporting long-term capital formation, and strengthening liquidity and price discovery – marking a capital market advancing in maturity, resilience, and global relevance.