UAE Cabinet Decision No. 112/2022: VARA Virtual Asset Delegation

The decision is short, but it performs an important allocation function in the UAE’s multi-regulator virtual-assets framework. Article 1 imports the definitions used in Cabinet Decision No. 111/2022. Article 2 then delegates to VARA the competencies and powers of the federal Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), now succeeded by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) under the 2025 capital-market reorganization, for specified virtual-asset activities in Dubai.

• VARA is delegated powers to license virtual-asset activities listed in Cabinet Decision No. 111/2022 and to supervise and control those activities, service providers and transactions within Dubai and its free zones.
• VARA may issue decisions regulating virtual-asset transactions and VASP licensing mechanisms, provided those decisions do not conflict with decisions approved by the federal authority.
• The decision covers compliance checks for personal-data protection, application of monitoring mechanisms for suspicious transactions, investor risk awareness, inspection programs, security-risk reporting, fee collection, penalties and grievances.

Article 3 requires VARA to cooperate and coordinate with the federal authority to establish a unified work mechanism for supervision and control over VARA-licensed VASPs. The same article addresses sharing of fees, commissions and fines where federal and Dubai-level powers overlap. It also provides that VARA must comply with Cabinet Decision No. 111/2022, UAE legislation and federal policies, strategies, principles, standards, regulations and decisions when exercising the delegated powers.

The decision does not create a standalone universal crypto license for the whole UAE. Rather, it helps define how VARA’s Dubai mandate interacts with the federal framework. In practical regulatory mapping, that makes the decision a bridge between Dubai Law No. 4 of 2022, the VARA rulebook and the federal virtual-asset framework administered by the SCA/CMA.

Article 4 states that VARA exercises the delegated competencies exclusively within the Emirate of Dubai and the free zones therein. VARA’s own regulatory framework states that it regulates virtual assets across Dubai’s mainland and free zones, except within the Dubai International Financial Centre. Cabinet Decision No. 111/2022 also excludes financial free zones from the federal virtual-assets resolution and excludes virtual assets used for payment where they fall within Central Bank competence, except where the Central Bank approves them for investment trading on a VA platform.

Cabinet Decision No. 112/2022 was issued on December 12, 2022. Cabinet Decision No. 111/2022 was published in Official Gazette No. 741 on December 15, 2022 and is listed by the UAE legislation portal as effective January 14, 2023. Because Decision 112 commences on the same date as Decision 111, January 14, 2023 is the operative effective date used for this profile.

A later 2025 federal decree reorganized the SCA into the Capital Market Authority with effect from January 1, 2026. That decree states that Cabinet Resolutions No. 111 and No. 112 of 2022, and resolutions issued under them, continue to apply to the extent not inconsistent with the new decree and relevant legislation until repealed, amended or superseded. In September 2024, SCA and VARA also announced a cooperation agreement addressing licensing and supervision procedures, mutual supervision, penalties, information exchange and training.