A. SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)

The UAE hosts 100 firms holding virtual asset licences across five jurisdictions, according to a tracker launched by NeosLegal, a crypto-native law firm based in the UAE.

The tracker, known as UAE VASP License Tracker 2026, doubles as a verification tool. Each entry lists the regulator, licensed activities and licence date so that investors can confirm in seconds whether a firm is licensed, said Irina Heaver, crypto lawyer and founder of NeosLegal.

Speaking to Aletihad, Heaver said the UAE has one of the most diversified virtual asset regulatory ecosystems globally, with five active licensing regimes operating in parallel: VARA, ADGM/FSRA, DFSA, CBUAE, and CMA.

VARA refers to Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, which regulates virtual asset service providers in Dubai. ADGM/FSRA refers to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of ADGM, Abu Dhabi’s international financial centre, which introduced the world’s first comprehensive virtual asset framework in 2018, with the first licence issued under it in 2019.

DFSA is the Dubai Financial Services Authority, the regulator of the Dubai International Financial Centre, operating under its own common law regime. 

CBUAE refers to the Central Bank of the UAE, which regulates payment tokens and stablecoins at the federal level, including dirham-backed stablecoins. 

CMA refers to the federal Capital Market Authority, formerly the Securities and Commodities Authority, and regulates security tokens and tokenised commodities across the UAE.

Heaver said the UAE has reached 100 active licensed virtual asset entities. However, the tracker shows 173 line items because many firms hold more than one activity permission, such as a broker-dealer licence as well as a custody licence, while a few firms hold licences from more than one regulator.

“The entity count and the line-item count are different things,” Heaver said.

By unique entity per regulator, VARA has 49 companies, the largest share. The remaining licensed entities are divided among ADGM/FSRA, DFSA/DIFC, CBUAE and CMA, Heaver said.

“VARA holds the largest share and ADGM/FSRA is the clear second, with the other three smaller but growing fast, especially on stablecoins,” she said.

The tracker is free and updated monthly. It maps every active virtual asset licence in the UAE by regulator, activity and licence date, covering VARA, ADGM/FSRA, DIFC/DFSA, CBUAE and the federal CMA.

Heaver said the UAE has added 14 new licencees since the start of 2026, underlining continued momentum in the country’s virtual asset sector. Notable names include JD Stablecoin, the fiat-referenced token issuer affiliated with JD.com, which was licensed at ADGM/FSRA in January; Animoca Brands; and Binance’s ADGM entities. Crypto.com also added a Central Bank stored value facility licence in May, in addition to its existing VARA licence, she said.

She said a regulated stablecoin build-out is taking place across two regulators at the same time. The Central Bank now oversees live dirham-backed stablecoins, including AE Coin, ZAND AED and the DDSC network, while ADGM hosts fiat-referenced token issuers including JD Stablecoin, Paxos, Universal Digital and Circle, the issuer of USDC.

The tracker also points to the growing participation of traditional financial institutions in the virtual asset ecosystem, Heaver said. Licensed entities now include Standard Chartered, Julius Baer, Sygnum, AMINA Bank, Bank Frick and Zand, operating alongside crypto-native exchanges.

Broker-dealer activity is the most common licence category, accounting for roughly 45% of VARA permissions, Heaver said. She said this reflects how global exchanges generally enter the UAE market, starting with trading facilitation before building out full exchange infrastructure.

Institutional custody is also emerging as the next major area of growth, with BitGo, Hex Trust, Komainu, Ceffu, Copper and Tungsten among licensed entities, Heaver said.

“That is institutional capital building infrastructure here,” she said.

NeosLegal said crypto rules are consolidating across Europe, where MiCA now applies as a single EU regime, while the UK and Switzerland run separate regimes. Against that backdrop, the UAE offers multiple regulatory routes and access to fast-growing markets across Africa, South Asia and the Middle East.

European firms are already entering the UAE market, according to NeosLegal. Bitpanda, the Vienna platform, holds a VARA broker-dealer licence; Zodia Markets, the London brokerage backed by Standard Chartered, is licensed in ADGM; and Amsterdam-founded Deribit moved its global headquarters to Dubai.

“We are seeing founders arrive from London, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich who ran out of room at home,” Heaver said. “A single regime gives you one option. The UAE gives you five, plus a doorway to the Global South. That is a rare proposition.”

Heaver said the UAE’s structural advantage lies in operating five active virtual asset licensing regimes in parallel.

“We are not aware of any other country operating five simultaneous frameworks,” she said.