UAE Capital Market Authority Issues Integrated Virtual Assets Framework
The UAE Capital Market Authority issued a five-module virtual-assets framework covering eight regulated activities, creating an integrated federal structure for trading, custody, portfolio management, and other digital-asset services.
On April 13, the United Arab Emirates Capital Market Authority announced a new Virtual Assets Framework organized into five modules covering general requirements, conduct of business, alternative trading systems, anti-money-laundering controls, and prudential requirements. The framework expanded the regulator’s covered virtual-asset activities from three to eight.
Those activities included dealing as principal and agent, custody and arranging custody, arranging investment deals, investment advice, portfolio management, and operation of a multilateral trading facility. Bitcoin was one of the assets affected by this broader framework because exchanges, custodians, advisers, and trading venues serving Bitcoin users fall within these regulated functions.
The event matters as part of the UAE’s effort to position itself as a major regulated digital-asset jurisdiction. Rather than a single enforcement action or license, the April framework built a broad supervisory architecture that could shape how Bitcoin businesses operate and how institutional users access the market.