- Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued yesterday a market notification regarding BitOasis’ ongoing work to fulfill select conditions associated with its Operational MVP License with respect to serving Institutional and Qualified Retail Investors
- BitOasis is working closely with VARA on fulfilling the remaining conditions and is committed to providing a safe and secure service to its users
At 16:15 (GST) on the 10th of July, 2023, Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued a notification on its website regarding the suspension of BitOasis’ Operational MVP License, which specifically covers institutional and qualified investors. It is important to note that BitOasis has not begun providing services to these segments as it has not been allowed to commence operations until fulfillment of all VARA-mandated conditions under its Operational MVP License.
To avoid confusion, we wanted to clarify that this does not impact our ability to continue to provide broker dealer services to our existing retail users, although we undertake to not onboard any new clients until we have fully complied with VARA requirements.
Our team will continue to work closely with VARA and remediate all outstanding post-licensing conditions of our Operational MVP License as committed to the regulator, as well as working towards Full Market Product (FMP) licensing. We remain committed to securing a broker-dealer license, and operating a compliant, regulated platform in and from Dubai under VARA’s supervision. Transparency has always been a key value of our business – we will continue to update our community as we address these requirements prior to applying for an FMP license.
The MVP licensing programme represents an important, unique, first-of-its-kind process that was launched by VARA, the world’s first dedicated virtual assets regulatory authority shortly after its creation in 2022. The programme remains one of the key cornerstones of Dubai’s regulatory framework, which was launched in February of this year.
From our launch in 2016, BitOasis took it upon itself to be a pioneer for the industry in Dubai and the broader region. We were the first virtual asset service provider to be registered with the UAE’s Financial Intelligence Unit (to whom we continue to report), were among the first virtual asset service providers to obtain approvals from VARA as early as March 2022, as well as being the first trading platform to secure an Operational MVP license.
We are committed to continuing our close collaboration with VARA. We knew that taking the lead in the ecosystem will come with its unique challenges, and we are glad to be tackling them in close cooperation with our regulator.
