Bybit wins full VARA license to run a Dubai spot exchange

Dubai has cleared Bybit to run a full spot crypto exchange. The emirate's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, known as VARA, listed Bybit Fintech FZE on its public register on 20 October 2026, approved to serve retail, qualified and institutional investors.

VARA's own register shows the grant. The entry gives the license a reference, VL/26/10/003, names the permitted activity as exchange services, and marks the status active. Bybit announced the approval within days.

Dubai set up VARA in 2022 as a dedicated crypto regulator, apart from the authorities that watch the rest of the UAE financial system. Its pitch to exchanges is a written rulebook in a fast-growing market. Bybit is not the first global venue on the register, which already carries names such as Binance and Deribit.

What the license allows

The permission is for spot trading only. That means buying and selling coins like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) outright, not futures or margin trades. Derivatives sit outside the license. Bybit would need a separate VARA approval to offer them, and it has none.

Its listing carries a CMA registration number, CMA-VASP-1000000-0006, and an issue date of 20 October 2026. The entry clears the company to serve three investor tiers: retail users, qualified investors and institutions. VARA notes on the page that the full record of regulated activities should be checked to confirm what a licensed firm may actually do.

Serving retail matters. Some Dubai approvals limit a firm to professional or institutional clients, so a permission that names retail users widens who could eventually sign up. The register entry sets no client cap, and VARA's note points readers to the detailed record of regulated activities for the exact terms.

A license is not an open exchange

Here is the catch. Bybit cannot start trading in Dubai on the strength of the register listing alone. The company said it must still finish VARA's launch process and meet operational requirements before spot services switch on. No launch date has been given.

Finishing the launch process is routine but real. New licensees usually have to show working systems for custody, client onboarding and market surveillance before a regulator lets them open the doors. Until Bybit clears that step, the Dubai license is a permission on paper and nothing a trader can use.

Ben Zhou, Bybit co-founder and chief executive, cast the license as a long game. "Securing our VARA license is another step in building for the long term," Zhou said, pointing to trust and local commitment. Peter Loo, the exchange's chief legal and compliance officer, said the firm hopes in time to add derivatives, subject to further approval.

Years of partial approvals

Bybit has circled Dubai since 2022, when it set up an international base in the city. Earlier VARA nods were preparatory and non-operational. A provisional approval in 2024 let the company work toward a full license but did not let it serve Dubai customers. This grant is the one that counts.

The exchange also holds a separate federal license. In October 2025 its Bybit Virtual Asset Platform Operator LLC entity won full approval from the UAE's Securities and Commodities Authority, the national regulator, and that clearance excludes Dubai. Robinhood recently won a different Dubai license from the DFSA, the regulator inside the Dubai International Financial Centre. Three authorities, one country.

What to watch

Timing is the open question. Bybit has not said when Dubai spot trading will go live, and the register listing does not start the clock by itself. For residents, the practical question is narrower than the paperwork, namely where and how to buy. A guide to buying bitcoin in the UAE covers the exchanges already operating there.

Numbers deserve a pinch of salt too. Bybit says it serves more than 80 million users worldwide, a figure the company reports itself and one that says nothing about how many sit inside Dubai's licensed perimeter. The other thing to track is derivatives. Bybit has said it wants them, and that would need a fresh VARA approval it does not yet hold.