B2B MENA Prime gets initial Approval

Dubai’s status as a leading global crypto hub continues to be cemented with the latest licensing development. B2B Prime Digital MENA, the MENA entity of B2 Prime Group, has received initial approval from the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) for broker-dealer, exchange, and a settlements and transfers license.

This initial approval marks a key step for B2B Prime Digital MENA on the path to full licensing from VARA, which regulates virtual assets in Dubai. The company still needs to fulfil specific pre-operating conditions and meet requirements for final operational approval per VARA’s guidelines.

There are already other broker-dealers (Fasset, Fuze Finance, GCEX, etc.) and Exchanges (Binance, OKX, Backpack, etc.) that have been licensed – but the interesting point here is the Transfers & Settlements licence.

At TLP, we deal with the VARA rulebooks on a daily basis and have them practically memorised. Each of the regulated activities under VARA comes with a specialised rulebook, but the Transfers & Settlements rulebook has always been, by far, the shortest.

This is likely because Transfers & Settlements, when first announced, used to be the Payments & Remittances licence, but this was later changed.

This is likely because payments falls squarely within the purview of the Central Bank of the UAE (and understandably so). The regulator-level discussion between the CBUAE and VARA is one that has been of tremendous interest to those wishing to bring to the fore crypto payment solutions, as any kind of payments/remittances would likely trigger the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) regulations issued by the CBUAE if the VASP in question was dealing in stablecoins (which most of them do when it comes to payments).

The CBUAE has not had extensive regulation around crypto, the key developments have been the Stored Value Facility regulations covering off all crypto assets and the RPSCS and Retail Payment Systems (RPS) regulations encapsulating Payment Tokens (terminology the CBUAE uses to discuss stablecoins).

It remains to be seen how players like B2B MENA would navigate this uncertainty between the regulators to arrive at a licensing and regulatory position where it can satisfy the requirements of both regulators or operate its business model in a manner that only one regulator would suffice.

More than any other activity (perhaps except in relation to leveraged trading and security tokens), payments is a sector that is crying out for innovation and transformation. The UAE has been at the forefront of all major developments surrounding crypto in the world today and has risen to the challenge of this new asset class and market with tremendous buoyancy, it remains to be seen if it is able to rise in all aspects of virtual assets – especially payments.