Is Dubai the New Rallying Point for Crypto Exchanges?
Godfrey Benjamin Jul 15, 2022 02:50
Dubai comes off as one of the most active influencers among gulf nations, granting licenses to many cryptocurrency exchanges recently.
Many jurisdictions around the world nowadays are interacting with the digital currency ecosystem in different ways. Dubai is one of the most active influencers among gulf nations.
While many state actors may see it as a threat, quite a lot more others are embracing the opportunities it brings.
Dubai comes off as one of the latter with the slew of licenses being granted to cryptocurrency exchanges today. As reported by Blockchain.News, OKX, one of the leading crypto exchanges in the digital currency ecosystem is one of the latest in the industry that has just been given the green light to operate in Dubai.
As announced by the crypto trading platform, the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) granted it a provisional virtual assets (VA) license, an allowance that will let it offer targeted crypto products to qualifying investors.
While the move complements the exchange’s efforts to go global, underscoring among many things its compliance capabilities, it speaks much more of the benevolence and the forward-thinking position of VARA. Riding on the allowance of the new license, the trading platform plans to establish a new regional office in Dubai, as it seeks to explore a more holistic engagement in the region.
“The MENA region is one of the fastest growing markets for our industry, and we are very excited to be at the heart of this thriving ecosystem,” said Lennix Lai, General Manager, OKX Dubai, “OKX looks forward to contributing meaningfully to the free exchange of ideas that is going to be so important to the development of this space while innovating for the future in a regulated framework.”
Joint Promotion of the Dubai Digital Assets Landscape
Besides OKX, the duo of Binance and Huobi have also tapped related licenses to operate in Dubai. The implication of this is not just to the benefit of the exchanges, the masses will also have a unique diversity in their payment options, while the government will be able to generate revenue in the form of taxes.
On the part of OKX, the exchange said it will be committing to promote the crypto ecosystem in Dubai in alliance with VARA. The exchange added it will seek to make meaningful contributions by facilitating research and knowledge sharing with the goal of making Dubai a leading hub for the global virtual assets industry.
Dubai, besides its role as one of the world’s most visited tourist locations, is also aiming to become the financial epicentre of the Middle East, then the world. While the growth of digital assets in the region can be attributed to the bullish nature of VARA, chances are that Dubai will eventually become the most sought-after rallying point for crypto exchanges in the near term.
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