Bybit Fintech FZE has secured a full Virtual Asset Service Provider license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, expanding the exchange’s regulated operations in its home market. The authorization covers Exchange Services and allows Bybit to serve retail, qualified and institutional investors in Dubai, while derivatives remain outside the current scope.
According to Bybit’s official October 22 announcement, the license supports spot trading through its Dubai entity. VARA’s public register independently lists Bybit Fintech FZE as an active VASP authorized for Exchange Services. The regulator records the license as issued on June 20, 2026, several months before Bybit publicly announced the milestone.
The approval completes a regulatory process that included provisional status in 2024. Bybit received a non-operational VARA approval in September 2024, which allowed it to continue the licensing process but did not authorize customer-facing virtual asset services, making the current full license materially different from that earlier stage.
Spot Trading Approved While Derivatives Remain Separate
Bybit says the Dubai authorization currently covers spot trading. The license does not extend to the derivatives products that represent a substantial part of Bybit’s global trading business, and the company has said any expansion into that category will require additional regulatory approval.
That separation matters because VARA distinguishes product permissions within its licensing framework. Other Dubai VASPs hold Exchange Services licenses that expressly include derivatives, while Bybit’s current regulatory record lists Exchange Services without a derivatives authorization, keeping its local offering narrower than its global product suite.
Bybit continues to operate leveraged markets elsewhere, including recently added ARXUSDT and OUSDT perpetual contracts. Those products demonstrate the exchange’s broader derivatives business but do not imply that the same contracts are available through the newly licensed Dubai entity.
Its spot business has also continued expanding through listings such as PONS on Robinhood Chain. A full Dubai spot license creates a regulated local framework for exchange services, but individual assets and products remain subject to Bybit’s entity-specific availability and regulatory obligations.
Dubai Approval Extends Bybit’s Multi-Jurisdiction Strategy
Bybit established its international headquarters in Dubai in 2022 and has progressively built separate regulated entities across multiple markets. The Dubai VASP license adds a jurisdiction-specific operating permission rather than functioning as a global authorization for the Bybit brand, an important distinction for users assessing which legal entity provides a particular service.
The exchange has followed a similar entity-based approach in Europe. Bybit Payments GmbH recently obtained an Austrian electronic money institution license, while a separate Bybit entity holds MiCA authorization for crypto-asset services. Splitting payments, crypto exchange activity and other financial services across regulated subsidiaries preserves different legal responsibilities even when they share the same consumer-facing brand.
VARA itself regulates virtual asset activity across Dubai’s mainland and free zones except the Dubai International Financial Centre. Bybit’s license therefore establishes regulated access specifically within VARA’s jurisdiction rather than across the entire UAE under a single authorization, where separate federal and financial-free-zone regimes can also apply.
The immediate milestone is consequently narrower than a full replication of Bybit’s global exchange in Dubai. Bybit now has active VARA authorization for spot exchange services across three investor categories, while derivatives remain a future regulatory objective requiring a separate approval process.
Emma Lawson writes about the pressure points where crypto meets the outside world: regulation, exchanges, macro policy, tokenized assets and geopolitical risk. From the US, she follows the decisions and events that can change how capital moves, how platforms operate and how digital assets are treated by institutions.
Her work is direct and evidence-led. Emma is less interested in legal theatre than in practical consequences: what changed, who is affected, which risks are real and where the market may be overreacting. She brings a steady voice to complex stories, especially when regulation, infrastructure and global markets start pulling in the same direction.