One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, Crypto.com announced on Friday that it had received provisional approval for its virtual assets MVP license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), allowing it to offer a full suite of crypto exchange products and services.

The license to operate under this specialized program will be issued as soon as the business qualifies for all mandatory requirements.

Established in March 2022, VARA oversees the issuance, trading and licensing of virtual assets in Dubai, regulates cryptocurrency exchanges and service providers, and monitors transactions to ensure the highest standards of protection consumers.

“The UAE is focused on developing a cutting-edge environment for innovative technology and collaboration, and we believe cryptocurrencies, virtual assets and blockchain will revolutionize the financial services industry,” said HE Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State. for foreign trade.

“Through our Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and other important initiatives, we are attracting businesses to the UAE to build on this vision and enable the technologies of the future to thrive here,” he said. -he adds.

Helal Saeed Almarri, chief executive of the Dubai World Trade Center Authority, home to VARA, said the creation of the first such specialized authority to regulate the virtual assets industry is a pioneering initiative by the management of Dubai which considers this sector as an accelerator of the future world economy.

FTX expands its services in Japan

FTX, which overthrew Coinbase to become the second-largest crypto exchange, has announced the launch of FTX Japan, to expand its services to Japanese customers.

The move comes days after FTX acquired Japanese crypto firm Liquid Group and its subsidiaries, including Quoine Corporation, a crypto-asset exchange registered with the financial services agency.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said that “Japan is a highly regulated market with a potential market size of nearly $1 trillion” for crypto trading.

Contrary to these expansions, Coinbase has decided to extend its hiring freeze and cancel a number of accepted offers to deal with current macroeconomic conditions.

The exchange, in a blog post, said it would suspend hiring “for as long as this macro environment requires.”

“We always knew crypto would be volatile, but this volatility coupled with larger economic factors could test the business, and us personally, in new ways,” Coinbase chief human resources officer LJ Brock said in the post. blog post.

Reportedly, another crypto exchange Gemini is planning to cut 10% of its employees due to unfavorable market conditions.

With crypto-enabled trading platform Robinhood’s share price at an all-time low, it laid off 9% of its workforce in April.