Dubai: Binance FZE, the Dubai-based subsidiary of the blockchain services provider, has received the Operational Minimum Viable Product (MVP) licence from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), it said on Monday.
This follows VARA’s issuance of the preparatory MVP licence to Binance in September 2022, which mandated specific conditions to be met in order to be authorised for operations. Successful fulfilment of these requirements has allowed for Binance FZE to be permitted by VARA to operate two licensed activities – VA Exchange Services and VA Broker-Dealer Services – limited to institutional and qualified retail investors in Dubai.
The transition to an operational MVP licence, from a provisional licence received in 2022 means that suitably qualified Binance FZE users will be able to access the authorised services including the ability to safely convert VA to fiat with strong FATF compliant standards. UAE residents and global consumers being on-boarded through this entity will benefit from heightened investor protection and market assurance standards customised for the VA sector, being mandated by VARA for any licensees to be able to offer regulated VA services, in and from Dubai.
Richard Teng, Head of International Markets at Binance, commented: “We are honored to be the first exchange to be granted an operational Minimum Viable Product Licence by VARA — a result of over a year of due diligence, collaboration, and consistent demonstration of responsible intent – that now allows us be able to leverage the potential of a progressive regulatory framework, enabling innovation while furthering user protection. Operating within this regulated ecosystem, we are committed to ensuring secure and seamless customer migration, with robust Know-Your-Customer and Customer-Due-Diligence as part of the rigorous onboarding remediation as stipulated by VARA. Our priority is to be able to operate this first fully regulated exchange in, and from Dubai in a FATF compliant ecosystem, setting the stage for global scalability with uncompromised user assurance.”
