DUBAI, March 28 (Reuters) – Crypto exchange Bybit said on Monday it would open its global headquarters in Dubai and crypto platform Crypto.com said it would establish a regional hub there, the latest moves taken by the UAE to become a hub for the virtual asset industry.

Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates and the commercial hub of the region, this month released its first law governing virtual assets and formed the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) to oversee the sector. Read more

“Bybit has received approval in principle to conduct a full range of virtual asset businesses in Dubai,” the company said in a statement, adding that the headquarters is expected to begin operations in April.

Dubai this month granted virtual asset licenses to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and FTX Europe, a subsidiary of one of the largest crypto exchanges FTX. FTX will establish a regional headquarters in the city. Read more

Crypto.com, a major Singapore-based crypto exchange, said in a statement that it wants to establish a significant presence in the United Arab Emirates and will launch a major recruitment campaign in the coming months.

The UAE has pushed to develop the virtual asset industry and regulations to attract new forms of business as regional economic competition intensifies.

Helal Al Marri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, told an investment conference in Dubai on Monday that the UAE aspires to become a global capital for virtual assets and other sectors like the metaverse.

“We see the talent movement coming here, we see big corporations, banks, other multinationals starting to tiptoe into the space, choosing the UAE as their home to do so,” did he declare.

Internationally, regulators are concerned about how a crash in crypto-assets – highly volatile and always opaque markets – would ripple through the broader financial sector. Read more

Data gaps on crypto-assets make it difficult to assess their full utilization and many investors do not fully understand what they are buying, the Financial Stability Board, a risk watchdog, said in February. G20 economies.

Reporting by Lisa Barrington, editing by William Maclean

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