- Binance has secured its full license with the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).
- The licensing was finally successful after the exchange’s former CEO gave up his voting rights in the jurisdiction.
- The license will allow Binance to serve a wider range of customers with its diverse offerings.
Binance has finally obtained a full Virtual Asset Service Provider license in Dubai. The crypto exchange’s CEO Richard Teng made this public in a Bloomberg Interview, stating that Binance can now provide a much fuller suite of products, including spot and margin trading, to institutions, high net-worth individuals, as well as retail investors.
To facilitate the licensing, Binance’s former CEO Chanpeng Zhao had to forfeit his voting rights in Dubai in keeping with the jurisdiction’s regulatory requirements. Following Zhao’s stepping down as Binance’s CEO last year, the crypto mogul also gave up his governing rights in the company, having transferred his voting rights via a proxy arrangement.
Before getting the full license, Binance obtained Dubai’s Provisional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) license in September 2022, allowing the exchange to have custody of customers’ funds locally by creating a domestic bank account. In essence, the exchange could operate as a crypto exchange, offering payment and custody services.
Later in July 2023, Binance obtained an Operational MVP License in Dubai, enabling it to offer customers access to VARA-authorized services such as converting virtual assets to fiat under the necessary regulatory standards. The Operational License was the second to the last stage and paved the way for this full license which Binance now has in Dubai.
“We are working closer with the regulators here, as well as the partners here, to bring about a vibrant ecosystem in Dubai. And you know crypto is a 24/7 market. When traditional markets are closed, people can still take investment strategy…hedging strategies, that you see after markets and throughout the weekend. So, we are very excited to serve the Dubai market and beyond,” said Teng, Binance’s CEO.
Binance has also been considering a possible location for its headquarters, with rumors it could be pitching its tent in Dubai. When asked if the exchange will build its headquarters in Dubai, Teng said they are still in discussion with several jurisdictions and that he’s working closely with the company’s global board of directors to determine the most suitable jurisdiction.
Teng, who politely declined to provide a shortlist of potential headquarters locations, went ahead to give a list of parameters for an ideal location. One such consideration is whether a potential jurisdiction has the “regulatory framework to cater to our suite of products and solutions which is very wide.”
According to Teng, Binance has over 188 million customers globally, making it the largest exchange in the world. A potential host country or jurisdiction must have a favorable regulatory framework for its mammoth customer base.
“We are looking at things like double taxation agreements globally and whether we can base our key management in those jurisdictions. So we are in deep conversations with several jurisdictions,” added Teng.
At the start of his tenure, Teng had a three-point agenda, including continuing to be user-focused, working with global regulators to uphold global standards, and working with global and local partners to support crypto adoption. According to him, Binance has added 16 million new users in his tenure and now has a whopping $120 billion in assets held by users.