Dubai hits 50 crypto licenses — because apparently the only thing faster than its skyscrapers is its VASP queue 🏙️

Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority has approved its 50th virtual asset service provider license, awarding the milestone to tokenized assets platform Tribe Tokenisation FZE. The grant was confirmed Monday, marking a symbolic benchmark for the emirate's standalone crypto regulatory framework established in March 2022. A VARA spokesperson told Cointelegraph that holding an active license does not necessarily mean a firm has completed its commercial launch, noting that newly licensed companies may go through a controlled operationalization period before offering services or onboarding customers. At the end of 2025, VARA classified 39 licensed VASPs as fully operational, and the spokesperson said the regulator is validating an updated figure for 2026.

Dubai's 50 licensed VASPs exceed the totals reported in Hong Kong and Singapore, two other jurisdictions competing to attract regulated crypto businesses, though each regulator licenses different categories of firms. As of Friday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore listed 37 major payment institutions authorized to provide digital payment token services, with Singapore regulating such activity within its broader payments regime rather than through a standalone VASP regulator. Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has listed 13 formally licensed virtual asset trading platforms, a narrower count because that regime is specifically limited to platform operators.

The VARA spokesperson attributed Dubai's market growth to its activity-based regulatory framework and broader financial ecosystem, and said the regulator also considers transaction volumes, assets under management, employment and audited financial data when assessing market activity. License totals alone do not indicate how many firms are operational or the level of business they generate, a distinction the regulator emphasized as it reviews its next round of figures.