Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority: Willing to consider opportunities such as interoperability with Hong Kong, China if business is suitable

Deepa Raja Carbon, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), said that after the turmoil in the virtual asset industry, people are more eager for clear regulations, which is why international exchanges are developing their businesses in Dubai. Hong Kong and Dubai have very similar DNA. The regulation of virtual assets in various regions does not need to be consistent, but coordination between regulators is very important, because many frauds involving virtual assets do not occur in a single region. Dubai and Hong Kong's various regulatory departments also have close ties. They appreciate the way Hong Kong regulators deal with problems the most. As long as the transaction or business is suitable for development in the region, they are willing to consider opportunities such as interoperability. Deepa Raja Carbon pointed out that virtual asset exchanges apply for licenses in Dubai not only to serve Dubai, but also to find markets that can serve markets around the world that are not clearly regulated. Exchanges cannot grow in unregulated markets, and Dubai's regulation is safe enough to provide services for bilateral transactions. She mentioned that the industry experienced an era of no regulation in 2021. The exchanges that applied for licenses in Dubai are seeking regulation to protect their own and investors' interests. The relevant exchanges initially only provided services to qualified investors in the traditional financial field. When VARA grants the license, they can serve retail investors and expand market coverage. Dubai recently introduced new regulations for market promotion. Deepa Raja Carbon explained that virtual assets are developing rapidly, and VARA has spent two years to launch a regulatory system. It also intends to expand its scale in the future. She continued that supervision should not only tell companies what they can and cannot do, but also tell the market what to pay attention to. The current market promotion regulatory system needs to be very strict. In addition, VARA is actively involved in virtual asset education, including cooperation with universities, hoping to increase Dubai citizens' understanding of virtual assets. She continued that VARA will establish international connections with other governments faster in the next step to ensure that licensed institutions can meet the needs of other markets, and the local market will not face the risk of no supervision. In addition, each market has different problems to solve. In unregulated areas such as Web3, AI and NFT games, VARA will also actively contact different industries to avoid the recurrence of the situation in the virtual asset industry, such as working closely with the AI ​​department to coordinate the supervision of all parties. As for the possibility of reaching "global rules", she believes that different countries or regions have their own work priorities. What VARA is trying to do is to establish a set of standardized rules for the world, and then countries can change them for their own needs. (Ming Pao)