VARA grants 50th cryptocurrency license as Dubai expands digital asset market
The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in Dubai has reached a milestone with 50 licensed cryptocurrency companies, although just 39 VASPs were actively operating by late 2025 in the growing regulated marketplace.
Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the emirate's cryptocurrency oversight body, has issued its 50th license to a virtual asset service provider (VASP).
VARA announced on Monday that Tribe Tokenisation FZE, a platform focused on tokenized assets, received the latest authorization.
This benchmark offers insight into the expansion of Dubai's cryptocurrency licensing framework, although the total number of licenses issued doesn't necessarily reflect how many companies are actively conducting business or their transaction volumes.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, a VARA spokesperson explained that possessing an active license doesn't automatically indicate that a company has begun commercial operations. Companies that have recently received licenses may undergo a supervised operationalization phase prior to launching services or accepting customers.
By the conclusion of 2025, VARA identified 39 licensed VASPs as completely operational. According to the spokesperson, the regulatory body is currently verifying an updated count for 2026.
Dubai's bid to attract crypto firms
Over recent years, Dubai has been strategically establishing itself as an international center for digital asset enterprises. In support of this initiative, the emirate created VARA in March 2022 as a specialized cryptocurrency regulatory body and has worked to draw crypto companies through an independent licensing structure.
In this context, Dubai's count of 50 licensed VASPs surpasses the numbers seen in Hong Kong and Singapore, two additional jurisdictions vying to draw regulated cryptocurrency enterprises. Each of these jurisdictions issues licenses for different categories of crypto operations, which means the overall numbers don't represent identical types of companies.
As of Friday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had registered 37 major payment institutions (MPI) with authorization to offer digital payment token (DPT) services. Singapore oversees DPT services under its comprehensive payments regulatory framework instead of through a dedicated VASP regulator similar to VARA.
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong has documented 13 officially licensed virtual asset trading platforms. This figure is more limited because the regulatory framework specifically targets platform operators.
According to the VARA spokesperson, Dubai's market expansion can be credited to its activity-focused regulatory approach and comprehensive financial ecosystem, adding that the regulator also evaluates transaction volumes, assets under management, employment figures and audited financial data when measuring market activity.