VARA: Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority

A Board Briefing on Mandate, Licensing, Controls and Enforcement

Prepared by Kim | CISO | linkedin.com/in/kimabdalian | September 2026 | Target audience: Executive
and Senior Management

Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) is the world’s first regulator built solely to
license, supervise and enforce rules on virtual asset businesses. It now licenses more than fifty
firms, including Binance, OKX and Crypto.com, making it the reference point for institutional virtual
asset activity in the Middle East and a framework other jurisdiction are actively studying.

This briefing walks Board members through VARA’s legal standing, its twelve rulebooks, the four-
stage licensing journey, and enforcement actions already taken against non-compliant platforms.
It maps VARA’s control expectations against ISO 27001:2022, NIST CSF 2.0, ISO 22301:2019
and PCI DSS v4.0, and highlights the requirements, such as client asset segregation, capital
adequacy, and wind-down planning, that sit entirely outside those certifications.

Written for Board members with no prior exposure to virtual asset regulation, the briefing closes
with the practical implications for any organization considering activity that touches Dubai, along
with four concrete next steps for the Board to consider before making a commitment.