Bybit wins Dubai VARA licence for spot trading; derivatives not covered
Bybit Fintech FZE's licence covers exchange services for retail, qualified and institutional investors in Dubai. Bybit has not given a launch date, and perpetuals and other derivatives are outside the licence.
· Announced · Verified 2026-11-02 via official announcement
Announced Oct 22, 2026: Bybit wins Dubai VARA licence for spot trading; derivatives not covered. Affects: Residents of Dubai who want to trade spot crypto with Bybit once the licensed service launches. Source: bybit.com, verified Nov 2, 2026. Bybit code WQ3GV ($20 sign-up bonus).
Bybit said on 22 October 2026 that its Dubai entity, Bybit Fintech FZE, has received a Virtual Asset Service Provider licence from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for exchange services, covering spot trading. VARA's public register lists the licence as active, issued on 20 October 2026, and permitted to serve institutional, qualified and retail investors.
The licence does not cover derivatives. Bybit's chief legal and compliance officer, Peter Loo, said the company hopes in time to expand its licensed activities to include derivatives, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals; no timeline was given. A Bybit spokesperson told Cointelegraph that Bybit still has to complete VARA's launch process and meet operational requirements before it starts spot trading services in Dubai, and gave no launch date.
It follows two earlier VARA approvals that did not allow Bybit to serve customers in Dubai: a minimum viable product licence in June 2023 and a provisional, non-operational approval in September 2024. Bybit set up its international headquarters in Dubai in 2022.
Bybit separately holds a UAE Securities and Commodities Authority licence through Bybit Virtual Asset Platform Operator LLC, granted in October 2025. Bybit's restricted-countries page, last updated 16 October 2026, still lists Dubai as excluded for that entity. The new licence does not change Bybit's exclusion of the United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and other jurisdictions on that page.
“In time, we also hope to expand our licensed activities to include derivatives, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.”
— Peter Loo, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Bybit press release
Who this affects
Residents of Dubai who want to trade spot crypto with Bybit once the licensed service launches. Derivatives traders in Dubai are not covered. US users remain excluded under Bybit's terms.
Bybit at a glance
Bybit is a Dubai-headquartered centralised crypto exchange founded in 2018 by Ben Zhou. It offers spot, perpetual futures, options, copy trading and an on-chain Alpha section. The base tier charges 0.10% spot maker and taker and 0.055% taker on perpetuals. It does not serve the US, Canada or Singapore, and suffered a roughly $1.4-1.5B theft in February 2025.
Full Bybit sheet · 0.2% round trip
More from the newsroom
Sources
Last checked . Fees and terms change often; the venue's own page wins if it disagrees with ours.
- Bybit: Bybit Secures VARA Licence for Exchange Services in Dubai (22 Oct 2026) — checked 2026-11-02
- VARA public register: Bybit Fintech FZE (licence VL/26/10/003, Exchange Services, issued 2026/10/20, active) — checked 2026-11-02
- Cointelegraph: Bybit secures first full Dubai spot trading licence (23 Oct 2026) — checked 2026-11-02
- Blockhead: Bybit secures full VARA licence for spot trading in Dubai (23 Oct 2026) — checked 2026-11-02
- Bybit: Service Restricted Countries (last updated 16 Oct 2026) — checked 2026-11-02
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