Crypto Firms Flock to Dubai for Regulatory Clarity as UAE Cleans Its ‘Grey’ Reputation
If you’re in the crypto industry, it seems that Dubai is the place to be right now. Not only is the most populated city in the UAE and one of the world’s biggest tourist hotspots, but it has recently seen an influx of crypto firms looking to establish a regional (or global) base, including Binance, FTX, Crypto.com, and Bybit.
Given that Dubai also happens to be among the most important financial centers in the world, it may come as little surprise that crypto-related companies are moving to the city. Yet according to industry observers, it’s not only Dubai’s rising financial status that’s attracting crypto, but also the fact that it passed a law on virtual assets which provides the kind of regulatory clarity that crypto firms are desperate for elsewhere.
As such, Dubai might rise in importance within the crypto sector within the coming months and years, even if its inclusion on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s ‘grey’ money laundering watchlist will result in it facing greater scrutiny.
What’s important to note about Dubai’s emerging status within crypto is that most crypto-related firms established a presence after it passed the Virtual Assets Law (VAL) in late February and brought said law into effect in early March. This law also established the associated Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), which granted Binance one of the first licenses under the new legislation.
“Dubai recently issued a Law on virtual assets which is a significant regulatory development at both local and global levels: the Virtual Assets Law, issued on 28 February 2022, establishes VARA (the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority) as an independent regulatory body that sits within the Dubai World Trade Centre (‘DWTC’) tasked to regulate
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