Dubai is reprimanding BitOasis, one of the largest crypto platforms focused on customers in the Middle East, for failing to meet mandated conditions set forth by the local regulator.
(Bloomberg) — Dubai is reprimanding BitOasis, one of the largest crypto platforms focused on customers in the Middle East, for failing to meet mandated conditions set forth by the local regulator.
The emirate, which pitches itself as a global crypto hub, has been tightening scrutiny of license seekers since last year’s bankruptcy of FTX. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued an alert on Monday, saying it initiated an enforcement action against BitOasis.
“BitOasis is under review for not meeting mandated conditions, required to be satisfied within 30-60 day timeframes prior to being permitted to undertake any VARA regulated market activity,” the regulator said in the alert, which was sent to Bloomberg News.
Dubai has been requesting additional information from applicants including Binance, the world’s largest digital-asset exchange, Bloomberg reported in April. The action against BitOasis, a well-known firm to local regulators, suggests an even stricter approach going forward.
Read: FTX Chaos Prompts Reckoning on Dubai’s Embrace of Crypto Giants
Earlier this year, BitOasis received the first of Dubai’s so-called “minimum viable product operational licenses,” which would allow it to offer broker-dealer services for digital assets “to qualified retail and institutional investors from its Dubai HQ under VARA’s regulatory regime,” the company said in a statement at the time.
Further actions may include rescinding the exchange’s license to operate, the regulator said in its alert. A VARA spokesperson said BitOasis remains delayed in fully satisfying the pre-conditions needed to undertake regulated market activity.
A represenative for BitOasis said the firm is working closely with VARA to fulfill the remaining conditions and the company is “committed to providing a safe and secure service to its users.”
The reprimand is one of the latest in a global flurry of enforcement activities against crypto companies. In April, VARA said it issued a written reprimand to Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, the co-founders of the now-bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, as well as to Mark Lamb, Sudhu Arumugam and Leslie Lamb related to the activities of digital-asset exchange OPNX.
Last month, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force kept the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, on its “gray list” of jurisdictions that don’t do enough to tackle illicit funds.
While the FATF highlighted progress in a number of areas, it downgraded the Gulf state’s rating on new technologies, including crypto, to “partially compliant” with standards.
(Updates with VARA statement in eighth paragraph and FATF details lower down.)
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