VARA Dubai emerges as UAE's most popular regulator with 50th VASP issued license

UAE now has 101 regulated Virtual Asset Service Providers, and more than 50% of the licensed VASPs are in VARA (Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority) in Dubai, UAE. The regulator issued its most recent and 50th licensed VASP to Tribe Tokenization FZE.

On LinkedIn, Tribe wrote, “It’s been a long and challenging road, but today we are pleased to announce that the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority [VARA] has granted Tribe its VASP license. A VARA license is not a stamp that makes an investment safe, and it is not an endorsement of any property we list.”

What is Tribe?

For those who are not familiar with Tribe, it is a Dubai-based, blockchain-powered real-world asset (RWA) platform specializing in offering investments in fractional real estate.

The company adds, “We have always said Tribe is built on governance first, where rights are defined before capital is invited, rules are written down, and sequencing that is not left to discretion. The license is external proof of the standard we hold ourselves to internally.”

It also noted that now with the license at hand and framework in place, it will be offering properties that are already in the pipeline to the market soon.

VARA Dubai on actively courting crypto

In its press release, VARA Dubai noted that since it started in 2022, the regulator has developed a licensed market related to different business models, services, and stages of the virtual asset value chain.

VARA also noted that the significance is not only in the number of licensed firms, but that these VASPs have chosen Dubai, which in turn has contributed to the economic activity in the city through high-skilled jobs, technology investment, physical office presence, as well as demand for professional services, and international capital flows. All this supports Dubai’s Economic Agenda D33.

VARA’s licensing process assesses applicants across multiple areas, including, but not limited to, governance, ownership, financial resilience, operational capability, technology, cybersecurity, risk management, compliance, and anti-money laundering controls.

Licensed firms remain subject to ongoing supervision and must continue to meet the conditions and requirements of their authorization.

NeosLegal, UAE Crypto & Web3 Law Firm, recently published the UAE VASP License Tracker, a public database of every active crypto license in the country. At the time of publishing in June, the tracker noted that across the UAE, there were 101 VASPs, 173 licenses, and 5 regulators.

VARA, with its 50 licensed VASPs, has issued 75 licenses, although some VASPs hold more than one license. The FSRA in ADGM Abu Dhabi has issued 67 licenses, the DFSA in DIFC has issued 23 licenses, and the UAE Central Bank has issued 5 licenses for payment tokens or stablecoins. Additionally, the Capital Market Authority in the UAE has issued 3 licenses in total.

The most prevalent licenses across the UAE are crypto/digital asset broker-dealer licenses, which make up 65 out of 173 licenses.

VARA and ADGM have issues 82% of all licenses. Starting in 2026, more and more licenses are being issued in the tokenization space.

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