Dubai’s Crypto Industry Welcomes New Licensing Regime Amid Global Regulatory Uncertainty

Dubai’s crypto trade is thrilled the jurisdiction has lastly unveiled its crypto regulatory framework, giving locals a concrete licensing regime for digital asset issuers and repair suppliers.

The framework comes after crypto markets went right into a tailspin in 2022, prompting regulators all over the place to double down on organising or imposing safeguards, leaving corporations and traders unsure of crypto’s future.

Beneath Dubai’s new guidelines, all entities planning to supply a number of crypto-related providers within the jurisdiction should search the related authorization and licenses. The framework is accompanied by 4 obligatory rulebooks for service suppliers and 7 activity-based rulebooks that set out necessities by the kind of service provided – one thing Talal Tabbaa, founding father of regional crypto change CoinMENA praised as being “elegantly designed.”

Dubai, one in every of seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is aiming to turn into a worldwide hub for crypto and blockchain exercise, and was courting corporations to arrange within the jurisdiction even earlier than publishing its deliberate guidelines for the sector.

For the reason that new guidelines had been revealed, institutional crypto custody supplier Hex Belief turned one of many first to get an operational go-ahead from the emirate’s watchdog, the Digital Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).

“We were waiting for a licensing framework. We were waiting for somebody with interest to take the responsibility,” mentioned Mohamed Reda El Shiekh, head of compliance at Hex Belief for Center East and North Africa (MENA), referring to the time earlier than VARA, which was arrange in 2022.

However Dubai’s new guidelines are a piece in progress, its complete nature leaving room for additional growth over time. The aspiring hub’s new authorized framework additionally sheds mild on compliance prices within the area – one thing that might make it more durable for smaller corporations to arrange within the space.

Whereas Tabbaa referred to as the licensing prices “peanuts” when in comparison with different working prices like hiring employees or sustaining places of work regionally, and compliance charges should not one thing crypto corporations deal with when seeking to enter a market, even he admitted a few of Dubai’s charges may be thought-about to be on the costly facet.

In accordance with the doc, an organization seeking to supply change providers should pay an utility charge of 100,000 UAE dirham ($27,200) and an annual supervision charge of double that quantity. The applying charge doesn’t assure approval and if the corporate desires to supply extra providers like custody, lending or funds, they’ve to use for added licenses (at a 50% low cost on utility charges) and canopy extra supervision charges.

For comparability, Abu Dhabi, one other UAE emirate, costs $20,000 utility charge and a $15,000 annual supervision charge. However that goes up if corporations wish to supply different sorts of belongings, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) mentioned in an electronic mail to CoinDesk.

“Apart from any tokenized securities, under ADGM’s regulations, any crypto exchange that operates a spot or derivative market in relation to virtual assets (which include cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether) will have to apply for a Multilateral Trading Facility license,” the ADGM mentioned. Regulations require a $125,000 utility charge and a $60,000 annual supervision charge for corporations in search of to open MTFs.

Dubai’s charges are affordable for bigger corporations however might not be very sustainable for startups, Irina Heaver, a crypto lawyer primarily based within the UAE, instructed CoinDesk.

“However, I fully agree that Dubai needed to step up and to regulate the space, with so many bottom feeding scammers trying to establish here, enough is enough. Hopefully, these regulations will be used to really target those bad players,” Heaver mentioned.

In January, UAE Minister for Digital Economic system Omar bin Sultan Al Olama confronted powerful questions on why Dubai comes up as a most popular vacation spot for disgraced crypto founders like token issuer Terra’s Do Kwon. Al Olama mentioned VARA’s laws can be removed from a “light touch.”

The licensing charges could also be on the excessive facet in Dubai, however the grouping of Center East and North Africa nations (generally known as MENA) is a profitable market well worth the value, Tabbaa mentioned.

Mohammed AlKaff AlHashmi, co-founder of Dubai-based Islamic Coin, echoed Tabbaa, including that “good projects” received’t have issues with excessive compliance prices, which might additionally assist filter out “unwanted projects.”

“The fees are not the issue, one can raise money, earn or otherwise obtain the capital,” Heaver mentioned, including that, if not costly, VARA’s laws could also be too prescriptive.

“Having read the regulations, although I understand the sentiment, and support it, I still believe that the regulations are overly prescriptive, to the point that it would make it hard for the supervisory personnel of VARA to supervise the compliance with their own regulations,” Heaver mentioned.

Heaver mentioned the requirement to acquire licenses by particular crypto exercise would possibly get in the best way of enforcement. She, in flip, praised Switzerland’s principles-based laws, which points broad pointers on how current laws apply to sure actions.

Switzerland doesn’t have particular or separate rulebooks for crypto. In 2017 and 2018, the nation’s monetary regulator issued pointers for the way its banking, securities and anti-money laundering guidelines apply to the favored crypto fundraising methodology generally known as preliminary coin choices (ICO).

Though Dubai’s framework may be thought-about “slightly” rules-based, it isn’t prescriptive, based on Kristi Swartz, associate at regulation agency DLA Piper, which was VARA’s unique world authorized advisor in organising the regulatory bundle.

“It’s not something that’s prescriptive, because you do need, in this industry, to be slightly flexible, insofar as it’s a fast-paced, fast-moving industry. So if you’re very prescriptive in nature, you could probably expect it to be something that was out of date as soon as you wrote it,” Swartz mentioned, including that DLA Piper labored on the bundle for 9 months, and had been monitoring Dubai’s regulation of the sector even earlier than formally participating with VARA.

“As we look at the current regulatory landscape, it’s important to note that different jurisdictions and regulatory bodies can take different paths when addressing digital assets,” Alex Chehade, basic supervisor at Binance Dubai mentioned. “The main key aspects that these regulations provide for the Emirate are clarity and increased security for industry players, users, and investors.”

Binance obtained a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) license from VARA in September 2022, however Chehade says the change is just partway by way of the four-stage approval process. Beneath the circumstances of the MVP license, all services may be offered solely to certified and/or institutional traders. Retail shoppers “are strictly prohibited” till VARA decides to finally approve a full operation license for corporations, he added. No entity at the moment has a full license from VARA.

Regardless of its complete strategy, Dubai’s rulebook has room for extra specificity. Heaver identified that the framework doesn’t uniquely deal with payments-focused crypto like stablecoins, that are tethered to the worth of different belongings. Regulators around the globe, together with the U.Ok. and the European Union – with its cross-jurisdictional crypto regulation framework MiCA – have to date targeted largely on stablecoin regulation.

VARA does deal with stablecoins to a sure extent, Swartz mentioned, simply not in its rulebook for token issuance, however within the one for corporations. In VARA’s corporations rulebook, it lays out liquid asset reserve necessities for corporations – together with for digital belongings which can be linked to the worth of sovereign currencies.

The rulebook stipulates that, in all occasions, fiat-referenced digital belongings have to be “backed by cash or cash equivalent… reserves denominated in the fiat currency referenced of not less than the market value of the Fiat-Referenced Virtual Asset in public circulation, or not yet redeemed.”

This reserve requirement aligns with that of different jurisdictions which can be planning stablecoin laws equivalent to Hong Kong and Israel.

The rulebook for issuance, as an alternative, targeted on tokenized belongings together with non-fungible tokens (NFT), Swartz mentioned.

VARA acquired inquiries on token issuance every day, mentioned Winston Lau, fintech and digital asset lawyer at DLA Piper, who labored on the regulatory regime with Swartz.

“And those issuances range from… maybe just plain vanilla NFTs, which are just digital artworks to maybe more complex projects such as tokenization of real estate, or tokenization of financial instruments,” Lau mentioned, including the issuance rulebook is designed to offer steerage to trade contributors on how they’ll truly register and get regulatory sign-off on their initiatives.

“A big part of the rulebook is focused on what should go into the white paper which has to be registered with VARA and also publicly disclosed,” Lau mentioned.

Beneath a piece titled “Prohibited Virtual Assets,” VARA says the issuing of and all actions associated to anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies are prohibited within the Emirate.

However it’s not a tough “no,” Binance’s Chehade mentioned.

The rulebook features a caveat for service suppliers which have “mitigating technologies or mechanisms to allow traceability or identification of ownership,” in place. VARA didn’t make clear what these exemptions would possibly appear to be in follow, and Swartz declined to touch upon enforcement specifics.

“If we want to list these and offer these coins we have to demonstrate that you CAN have some level of traceability,” Chehade mentioned.

It’s unclear if user-activated traceability choices accessible with privacy-enhancing crypto like Zcash would qualify below the principles as “mitigating technologies.”

“Although I understand the sentiment, I completely do not agree,” Heaver mentioned of the transfer to ban privateness cash. “I am a big advocate for privacy, I believe that privacy is a human right.”

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