The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) virtual assets regulator has stated that no cryptocurrency exchange has received a full market product license (FMP). According to the country’s Minister Of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy, Omar Sultan Al Olama, no crypto entity was allowed to onboard any customers, even last week.
VARA has not issued a full-market product license
The UAE’s regulator for virtual assets, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), has not issued any operating licenses to date. This was confirmed by the country’s digital economy ministry, Omar Sultan Al Olama, in a statement to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Al Olama also noted that Binance FTX did not receive the Full Market Product (FMP) license.
According to Al Olama’s remarks on Laraontheblock, VARA’s four step process is still in progress, but no crypto has completed it yet. This translates to: “no one was able to onboard any customers even last week”.
In March 2021, VARA stated that it had granted Binance a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) license, allowing it to offer a limited range of virtual assets-related services to qualified institutional and retail investors in Dubai. Other cryptocurrency exchange platforms have also received similar licenses.
However, VARA has clarified that the licenses issued to Binance and other crypto exchanges are only “provisional” at Stage 1, or “MVP-Preparatory” at Stage 2.
VASPs cannot provide services to mass consumers.
According to VARA, these licenses are not issued for commercial activities. Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) can only satisfy the preconditions and start preparing for the process until Stage Gate (4) FMP license approval has been obtained. This is in line with Al Olama’s message to the WEF, that no cryptocurrency entity has been granted the full license.
“To date, no VARA licensee has received an MVP operating permit to provide regulated services or activities to its specifically authorized market segment(s) in the emirate. Any information or representation to the contrary is inaccurate and misleading,” the regulator stated in a market notification posted to its website.
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