Digital Asset Market Operator License UAE

ISIC classification: Administration of financial markets (6611)

Typically requires Designated Zone status for VAT purposes

About this activity

Operates a marketplace matching buyers and sellers of digital assets, maintaining order books and trade settlement systems.

Regulatory requirements

Requires external approval — Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) (Dubai) / Securities & Commodities Authority (SCA) (other Emirates) & Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE)

100% foreign ownershipYes

Facility requirementLicensed VARA/SCA-Compliant Office with Cybersecurity & Risk Controls

Market Analysis

The "Market Operator" phrasing here describes the same VARA Exchange Services function as ten sibling codes in this dataset. There's no VARA distinction between operating "a market" versus "an exchange" versus "a trading platform" — all three collapse into the same license category, fee structure (AED 100,000 application, AED 200,000/year supervision), and capital requirement (AED 800,000-1,500,000).

What might genuinely differ in practice is scale and product scope — a firm calling itself a "market operator" may be positioning toward institutional order-matching infrastructure rather than a retail-facing exchange app, but VARA's licensing doesn't formally distinguish these; both apply under Exchange Services and both go through the same fit-and-proper, technology, and custody review.

Dubai-only in practice. 100% foreign ownership applies.

Available in: . A detailed per-emirate fee breakdown isn't published for this activity yet — check back soon, or get a scored recommendation for your specific business below.

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