Komainu secures VASP license from Dubai’s VARA
“Dubai has a vibrant digital asset ecosystem and impressive talent pool, and we are proud to contribute to the growth of this innovative financial hub. Our presence and desirable regulatory status in the region marks another differentiator for us as we execute the next phase of our business.”
Komainu has been granted the operating license by the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai, the digital asset custody service provider announced.
The joint venture between Nomura, digital asset manager CoinShares, and digital asset security company Ledger first obtained a temporary MVP license from VARA in November 2022.
With this newly secured authorization, Komainu is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) and Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).
“Dubai has a vibrant digital asset ecosystem and impressive talent pool”
Sebastian Widmann, Head of Strategy at Komainu, said: “We see tremendous opportunities to scale our business here amid a significant boom in assets driven by fund formation and exchange launches. Dubai has a vibrant digital asset ecosystem and impressive talent pool, and we are proud to contribute to the growth of this innovative financial hub. Our presence and desirable regulatory status in the region marks another differentiator for us as we execute the next phase of our business.”
Based in Dubai, Komainu MEA FZE is a further commitment from Komainu to the continued build-out of a substantial organization to achieve its goals in the region. The company also has offices in London, Dublin, and Singapore, with its headquarters located in Jersey.
The final step in VARA’s licensing process allows Komainu to offer its full suite of custody services, including institutional staking and collateral management via its Komainu Connect platform to clients in the Emirate.
Dubai’s VARA has designed bespoke rules and guidelines to provide clarity, assure certainty, and mitigate market risks as part of a model framework for global economic sustainability within an innovation-centric environment that is truly borderless, technology agnostic, and future-focused.
GCEX tapped Komainu for digital asset custody
Launched in June 2020, Komainu currently custodies assets for exchanges, financial institutions, asset managers, corporations, and government agencies.
A prominent partner of Komainu is digital Prime Brokerage GCEX, which tapped the former in February 2023 to enhance its offering of regulated custodians to its institutional and professional clients, providing an even greater choice of regulated custodians.
Komainu supports custody for 34 native blockchains and 5,700 tokens. Assets are fully segregated from both those of Komainu and of other Komainu clients.
GCEX MENA has also been granted provisional regulatory approval by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in Dubai (VARA) to operate as a crypto exchange and is part of the Dubaiverse community.
