Animoca Brands has secured a Dubai crypto license, enabling the company to expand its blockchain and Web3 services across the Middle East. The approval marks a strategic milestone in its global growth roadmap and strengthens its presence in the region’s rapidly evolving digital asset ecosystem.
Animoca Brands has been granted a Virtual Asset Service Provider licence by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). It will allow Animoca to provide regulated services to institutional and qualified investors in and from the emirate.
“This licence enhances our ability to engage with Web3 foundations as well as global institutional and qualified investors within a well-regulated framework,” said Omar Elassar, managing director for the Middle East and head of global strategic partnerships at Animoca Brands.
In October 2025, digital asset infrastructure company BitGo also obtained a broker-dealer license from Dubai’s VARA. This license allowed its Middle East and North Africa unit to provide regulated digital-asset trading and intermediation services to institutional clients in the emirate.
Animoca Brands develops digital asset platforms, including Moca Network, Open Campus, Anichess and The Sandbox, and also supplies services to help crypto firms launch and grow. Its portfolio covers more than 600 companies and digital assets.
In January, Animoca Brands acquired gaming and digital collectibles company Somo, adding Somo’s playable and tradable collectibles to its broader portfolio of blockchain-based projects.
The company can now operate as a virtual asset broker-dealer and to offer management and investment services, excluding activities in the Dubai International Financial Centre.
VARA, established in 2022, is the world’s first independent regulator dedicated to virtual assets, responsible for monitoring digital asset activity across Dubai and setting governance standards for the sector. The regulatory body said it had issued financial penalties against 19 companies for “unlicensed” Virtual Asset activities and “breaches of VARA’s Marketing Regulations.”
Animoca Brands said the approval strengthens its plans to expand further across the Middle East and positions it to deliver regulated digital asset products under a recognised framework.