Abu Dhabi Investment Group MGX has agreed to invest $2 billion in Binance in early 2025, corresponding to a valuation of $75 billion, acquiring a minority stake.

This marks Binance's first introduction of institutional shareholders and MGX's first public entry into the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector. Both parties issued a statement on March 12, 2025, stating that the investment would be completed in stablecoins and referred to it as the largest single investment in the history of cryptocurrency companies; the specific stablecoin was not named, and the shareholding ratio was not disclosed.

MGX views Binance as a funding channel connecting cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, positioning itself as a high-tech transfer service for automated AI agents to make payments on behalf of users. The group was initiated by Mubadala and G42 in March 2024, chaired by UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with an initial target management scale of $100 billion.

Binance CEO Richard Teng stated that the focus of the collaboration is on compliance, security, and user protection. Teng previously led the financial regulatory authority for Abu Dhabi Global Market and is now based in the UAE; Binance has about 1,000 employees in the UAE and holds a crypto regulatory license in Dubai but has not designated the UAE as its global headquarters.

In May 2025, Zach Witkoff, co-founder of World Liberty Financial, stated in Dubai that MGX's $2 billion investment would be settled in USD1, a stablecoin issued by the institution. On-chain data shows that an anonymous wallet received approximately $2 billion USD1 between April 16 and 29. MGX later told the media that the choice of stablecoin was to reduce volatility, and it did not pay the issuer, nor does it currently hold USD1.

The buyer is the sovereign-backed MGX, while the seller is Binance's existing equity. The funds entered the exchange's equity in stablecoins rather than the public secondary market; the event was driven by Abu Dhabi extending AI investments into payment channels. Beneficiaries include Binance, which gains institutional endorsement, MGX, which secures AI agent payment access, and the USD1 issuer, which benefits from increased reserve scale and interest from U.S. Treasury bonds; the pressured party is the counterparty facing inquiries from U.S. lawmakers and conflicts of interest.

Binance pleaded guilty to U.S. anti-money laundering criminal charges in 2023 and paid over $4 billion in fines. Subsequent statistics from Forbes showed that Binance wallets and user accounts once held about 87% of circulating USD1.

Source: Public Information