On 22 October 2026 crypto exchange Bybit officially announced it had received a full VASP licence from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the emirate's regulator for virtual assets. VARA's public register lists the licence under Bybit Fintech FZE, reference VL/26/10/003, with Status Active, Licensed Activities Exchange Services, and the licence condition permitting service to institutional, qualified and retail investors.
What the regulator says
The Bybit Fintech FZE record in VARA's public register sets out the key fields: Licence Type — VASP Licence; Licensed Activities — Exchange Services; permitted client categories — institutional, qualified and retail investors; Status — Active; Licence Issued — 20 June 2026. This is the full operational tier of the licence: Bybit's earlier stages — the MVP from June 2023 and a Provisional (Non-Operational) VASP from September 2024 — did not allow the exchange to offer the full set of exchange services to retail clients in Dubai.
The company's public announcement followed on 22 October 2026. In it, co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said Dubai had "made significant progress in building a regulatory environment for virtual assets". Chief Legal and Compliance Officer Peter Loo confirmed that the firm intends to "expand our licensed activities to include derivatives" in time — but noted this would require separate regulator approvals.
What it means for UAE businesses and residents
For UAE retail users, the key change is access to spot crypto trading on a locally regulated venue, with client-protection, AML/KYC and operational-resilience rules. For companies looking at crypto operations from the UAE (payment processing, token issuance, treasury), the move of a top-tier global exchange from provisional to full Active status is another signal that VARA's framework is maturing. If you are planning your own crypto business in Dubai, the starting point is VARA's licence regime; we cover the practical procedure in "VARA License in Dubai: How to Start a Crypto Business".
Context: how crypto regulation evolved in Dubai
VARA was created in March 2022 under the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority and is the world's first dedicated regulator for virtual assets. Since then, hundreds of providers have been licensed — exchanges (Binance, OKX, Crypto.com), custody services, brokers. At the federal level, SCA (Securities and Commodities Authority) runs its own Virtual Asset Platform Operator Licence; DIFC is served by DFSA; ADGM by FSRA, each under its own common-law framework. Bybit, one of the largest exchanges by trading volume globally, moving to full Active status at VARA reinforces Dubai's positioning as a regulated crypto hub in the Gulf.
