The awarding of the Virtual Asset Licence from Dubai's
recently formed Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) comes after Gulf
neighbour Bahrain on Tuesday awarded Binance a crypto-asset service provider
licence, its first such licence from a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country.
"Binance will be permitted to extend limited exchange
products and services to pre-qualified investors and professional financial
service providers. All licensed VARA service providers will be monitored
progressively to open access to the retail market," Binance said in a
statement.
The crypto company will also anchor a blockchain technology
hub in the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), it said.
Financial regulators across the world have targeted Binance,
with some banning the platform from certain activities and others warning
consumers that it was not licensed to operate in their jurisdictions.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Gulf region's financial
capital, has been pushing to develop the virtual asset sector and regulation to
attract new forms of business as regional economic competition heats up.
Dubai, one of the UAE's seven emirates, last week adopted
its first law governing virtual assets and established VARA as a regulator to
oversee the sector.
Binance said in December it was working with DWTC to help
set up an international virtual asset ecosystem in Dubai and assist with the
development of virtual asset regulations.
"Binance will be able to operate its regional business
from Dubai in the newly announced regulatory ecosystem that is subject to
comprehensive legislation and internationally applicable policy
frameworks," DWTC Authority Director General Helal Saeed Almarri said. © Reuters
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