🇦🇪 Crypto licence in Dubai (UAE)

The regime

Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority — the world's first standalone virtual-asset regulator, created in March 2022 — licenses VASPs by activity: exchange, broker-dealer, custody, advisory, lending and management/investment services. The regime covers Dubai outside the DIFC financial free zone (which runs its own DFSA rules).

The UAE also added a central-bank framework for dirham-backed stablecoins, the payments layer for its 2030 tokenization agenda, and VARA licensing has pulled several of the world's largest exchanges into Dubai headquarters or regional hubs.

Requirements

• Licence per activity: separate VARA authorisations for exchange, broker-dealer, custody, advisory, lending/borrowing and VA management — each with its own rulebook on top of VARA's compulsory rulebooks (company, compliance & risk, technology, market conduct).
• Local substance: Dubai incorporation and physical presence, resident responsible officers, and paid-up capital set per activity.
• AML/CTF: UAE federal AML compliance and Travel Rule implementation; marketing rules apply even pre-licence.
• Two-step process: initial approval, then an operating licence with conditions lifted in stages (many licensees start restricted to institutional/qualified clients).

Licensed firms

VARA-licensed VASPs include:

• Binance (FZE) — full VASP exchange licence
• OKX — VASP licence including retail services
• Crypto.com — VASP licence, Dubai hub

Snapshot, not the register: verify current status against VARA public register before relying on it.

Does a VARA licence cover the whole UAE?

It covers Dubai outside the DIFC. Abu Dhabi's ADGM runs a separate FSRA regime, and the federal SCA recognises VARA licences for wider-UAE activity under a coordination framework.

How long does a VARA licence take?

Firms typically pass through initial approval to a conditioned operating licence over several months to a year-plus depending on activity; retail permissions usually come after an institutional-only phase.