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Briefly
- Animoca Manufacturers has acquired a VASP licence from VARA to supply broker-dealer and asset administration companies in Dubai.
- Dubai's DFSA banned privateness tokens from DIFC-licensed exchanges and tightened its stablecoin definition in January.
- India, the EU, and Hong Kong have moved equally, limiting or successfully banning privateness cash from regulated markets.
Animoca Manufacturers has obtained a Digital Asset Service Supplier (VASP) licence from Dubai's Digital Property Regulatory Authority (VARA), clearing the best way for the Web3 funding big to supply broker-dealer and asset administration companies to institutional and certified traders in and from the emirate.
The licence, introduced Monday, authorizes Animoca to function throughout the broader emirate of Dubai, excluding the separate Dubai Worldwide Monetary Centre, and is the most recent transfer by the area to construct out regulated infrastructure for digital property even because it tightens the foundations governing how companies function inside it.
Animoca Manufacturers acquired a Digital Asset Service Supplier (VASP) Licence from Dubai’s Digital Property Regulatory Authority @varadubai: https://t.co/79MEdR2Z8e
The VASP Licence authorizes Animoca Manufacturers to begin operations and to offer digital asset (VA) Dealer‑Supplier Providers…
— Animoca Manufacturers (@animocabrands) February 16, 2026
“Animoca has seen progress in its institutional merchandise equivalent to RWAs, so an emphasis on institutional purchasers out of Dubai is essential and strategic to us,” Yat Siu, the co-founder and govt chairman of Animoca Manufacturers, informed Decrypt. He added that, "VARA and the UAE/Dubai have demonstrated their management of their strategy of welcoming and aiding firms equivalent to ours," calling the area, "one of the ahead wanting and supportive locations for crypto broadly."
Animoca Manufacturers, which manages a portfolio of over 600 firms and digital property and operates platforms together with The Sandbox and Moca Community, stated the licence strengthens its foothold within the Center East.
Dubai's up to date framework
The approval lands weeks after Dubai's DFSA, the separate regulator governing the DIFC monetary free zone, prohibited licensed exchanges and monetary establishments from facilitating privacy-focused tokens equivalent to Monero and Zcash, citing anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance dangers.
The regulator additionally scrapped its permitted token whitelist, inserting the burden of ongoing asset suitability assessments squarely on licensed companies themselves.
The up to date framework, which got here into power final month, prohibits regulated companies from utilizing privateness units equivalent to mixers, tumblers, or obfuscation instruments that disguise transaction particulars.
The DFSA additionally tightened its definition of "fiat crypto tokens," reserving the class solely for tokens pegged to fiat currencies and backed by high-quality, liquid property able to assembly redemption calls for during times of market stress, an ordinary that may disqualify a serious portion of stablecoins presently in circulation.
"Stricter token and AML requirements really make Dubai extra engaging for severe world gamers, as a result of they de-risk the jurisdiction and provides establishments the regulatory readability they should scale right here, Nitesh Mishra, co-founder and CTO of hedging platform ChaiDEX Capital, informed Decrypt.
“Banning privateness tokens in DIFC and tightening round mixers and stablecoins is Dubai signalling 'clear capital solely,' which is strictly what massive funds, banks, and listed firms need," he famous.
Mishra added that VARA and the DFSA are "clearly shifting in line with world expectations," pointing to FATF alignment and sanctions enforcement as front-and-center priorities, whereas nonetheless welcoming builders.
"I'd slightly construct in a jurisdiction that simply obtained off the FATF gray listing and is doubling down on compliant, scalable infrastructure than chase short-term quantity in flippantly regulated hubs," he stated.
Dubai’s rule modifications match right into a wider AML-driven crackdown on privateness tokens and transaction-obscuring instruments.
Final month, India's Monetary Intelligence Unit up to date its AML/CFT pointers to require regulated digital digital asset service suppliers to dam deposits, withdrawals, and buying and selling of privateness tokens, together with coin mixers, citing "unacceptably excessive" cash laundering and terrorist financing dangers.
