ARP Digital gets Dubai VARA in-principle approval for broker-dealer services

By Aarav Garg

ARP Digital has received in-principle approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to provide broker-dealer services, extending the firm’s regulatory footprint into the UAE as Gulf jurisdictions compete to build institutional digital asset markets.

The approval gives the regulated digital capital infrastructure platform a pathway to operate in Dubai, subject to final licensing conditions. Until full approval is granted, ARP Digital is not yet authorised to provide services in the Emirate.

“The UAE has accumulated a significant concentration of digital asset wealth over the past three years, held by individuals and institutions that are sophisticated in their understanding of that capital but constrained in their ability to deploy it into local assets. The gap has never been a matter of appetite. It has been a matter of regulated infrastructure. The VARA in-principle approval is ARP Digital’s commitment to close that gap from within the Gulf, under the same regulatory rigour our Bahrain clients have relied upon since our CBB licensure,” said Abdulaziz Kanoo, Co-Founder, ARP Digital.

The move is strategically significant given the UAE’s growing role in global digital assets. The country has become one of the region’s largest hubs for crypto wealth and transaction activity, creating demand from individuals, corporates and institutions seeking compliant ways to convert digital assets into fiat currency and deploy capital into domestic markets.

ARP Digital said the licence would allow it to support UAE-domiciled corporates and capital markets participants with regulated digital asset conversion into local currency once fully operational.

ARP Digital is already licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a Capital Market Crypto Asset Service Provider (Category 3). Under that framework, the company said it has processed more than $3.5 billion in volume across over 450 institutional and corporate counterparties.

The Dubai approval marks the first formal expansion of ARP Digital’s regulatory perimeter into a second GCC jurisdiction. It also comes amid wider growth in the region, where regulators in the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are positioning themselves as gateways for tokenised finance, digital asset custody and institutional trading infrastructure.

The company said it recorded fourfold year-on-year volume growth in 2025 and maintained 99.99% platform uptime. It is also pursuing additional licences in other markets as part of a broader strategy to connect global digital asset liquidity with Gulf financial rails.