Licensable activity
Virtual assets & Web3
Virtual asset businesses divide sharply into two groups, and the division governs everything. Regulated activity — operating an exchange, custody, broker-dealer services, managing others' virtual assets — needs a licence from a virtual asset regulator. Non-regulated activity — protocol development, Web3 software, NFT creation, consulting — needs only an ordinary trade licence.
Classification
How it is coded.
UAE activity lists derive from ISIC Revision 4, the United Nations industrial classification. Each emirate's economic department and each free zone then extends that base with its own numbering, so the same activity carries a different code in Dubai than it does in Sharjah or inside DMCC.
- ISIC Rev. 4
- No settled ISIC treatment — usually mapped into Section J or K by activity
- Licence category
- Depends entirely on whether the activity is regulated
- Regulator
- VARA (Dubai) · SCA (federal) · FSRA (ADGM) · DFSA (DIFC)
Approvals beyond the licence
- Dubai, outside DIFC
- Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. A structured, staged process with real capital and governance requirements.
- ADGM
- FSRA, one of the earlier comprehensive virtual asset frameworks anywhere.
- Non-regulated activity
- RAK DAO and several free zones licence development and advisory work without a virtual asset permission.
In practice
The UAE has built genuine regulatory infrastructure here rather than leaving a gap, which is why the serious operators are onshore rather than offshore.
Coverage
Where it can be licensed.
Of the 40 licensing authorities across the UAE, 5 issue licences covering this activity, spread across 3 of the seven emirates.