VARA Supervision
& Licensing Fees
Quick Guide
Understand the full cost of getting and keeping your VARA license in Dubai. From one-time application charges to annual supervision fees, here’s a clear breakdown of what every Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) must budget for under Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.
1. Annual Supervision Fees
Once licensed, you must pay an annual fee, due in advance, for each VA activity:
Advisory Services OR Transfer & Settlement Services
Fee: AED 80,000 per year
What it Covers:
- Advisory Services: When your firm gives clients specific advice or guidance about virtual assets (e.g, should they invest, trade, or structure deals?)
- Transfer & Settlement Services: When your firm is responsible for moving digital assets between parties or wallets (for example, settlement between buyers and sellers, or cross-platform transfers.)
Why it's lower: These activities are considered less risky than running an exchange or custody platform, but still require monitoring because they touch end client's assets or decisions.
What it Covers:
- Advisory Services: When your firm gives clients specific advice or guidance about virtual assets (e.g, should they invest, trade, or structure deals?)
- Transfer & Settlement Services: When your firm is responsible for moving digital assets between parties or wallets (for example, settlement between buyers and sellers, or cross-platform transfers.)
Why it's lower: These activities are considered less risky than running an exchange or custody platform, but still require monitoring because they touch end client's assets or decisions.
High-Risk Core Activities
Fee: AED200,000 per year
This applies if you are licensed for any of the following:
- Broker - Dealer: Matching buyers and sellers, market-making, or facilitating VA trades.
- Custody: Safekeeping digital assets for clients, including managing wallets.
- Exchange: Running a trading platform where flat-to-crypto or cyrpto-to-crypto exchanges happen.
- Lending & Borrowing: Offering contracts where virtual assets are lent, borrowed, or staked for yield.
- VA Management & Investment Services: Managing or investing client's virtual assets on their behalf (like fund management, staking pools, or structured products).
Note: License Extension Fee is 50% of the lower Licence Application Fee(s) for each additional activity.
This applies if you are licensed for any of the following:
- Broker - Dealer: Matching buyers and sellers, market-making, or facilitating VA trades.
- Custody: Safekeeping digital assets for clients, including managing wallets.
- Exchange: Running a trading platform where flat-to-crypto or cyrpto-to-crypto exchanges happen.
- Lending & Borrowing: Offering contracts where virtual assets are lent, borrowed, or staked for yield.
- VA Management & Investment Services: Managing or investing client's virtual assets on their behalf (like fund management, staking pools, or structured products).
Note: License Extension Fee is 50% of the lower Licence Application Fee(s) for each additional activity.
2. Variable or Discretionary Fees
In addition to fixed application and annual supervision fees, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has the right to impose variable fees. These are not flat charges — they change depending on the nature and scale of your business. Think of them as “risk-based adjustments”. The more complex, high-impact, or risk-heavy your operations are, the higher the fee burden may become.
Factors VARA Considers:
Factors VARA Considers:
Market Share
- A small advisory firm serving a few institutional clients might pay only the base fees.
- A global exchange capturing large retail trading volumes in Dubai could see higher fees to reflect the supervisory resources VARA must dedicate to oversight.
- A global exchange capturing large retail trading volumes in Dubai could see higher fees to reflect the supervisory resources VARA must dedicate to oversight.
Target Clients (Retail vs. Institutional)
- Institutional clients (e.g., banks, funds, corporates) are usually considered more sophisticated and lower risk.
- Retail clients (individual investors, traders, gamers) pose higher consumer protection risks, so VARA may add supervisory fees.
- Retail clients (individual investors, traders, gamers) pose higher consumer protection risks, so VARA may add supervisory fees.
Complexity of Services or Products
- A straightforward spot exchange is less complex.
- An exchange offering derivatives, staking, NFTs, or bundled DeFi services introduces greater regulatory and technological risk, requiring extra oversight — which translates to additional fees.
- An exchange offering derivatives, staking, NFTs, or bundled DeFi services introduces greater regulatory and technological risk, requiring extra oversight — which translates to additional fees.
Compliance Track Record
- Firms with clean audits, transparent reporting, and no compliance breaches may only pay the base annual fee.
- Firms that have received warnings, had late filings, or struggled with internal controls may be charged extra to cover VARA’s additional monitoring efforts.
- Firms that have received warnings, had late filings, or struggled with internal controls may be charged extra to cover VARA’s additional monitoring efforts.
Complaints or Enforcement Needs
- Firms with clean audits, transparent reporting, and no compliance breaches may only pay the base annual fee.
- If customers lodge repeated complaints or VARA has to investigate your firm frequently, supervision costs go up.- These costs are not absorbed by VARA — they are passed back to you as discretionary fees.
- If customers lodge repeated complaints or VARA has to investigate your firm frequently, supervision costs go up.- These costs are not absorbed by VARA — they are passed back to you as discretionary fees.
We're here to Help You!
With SecureVisa Group, you don’t just get licensed—you gain the full regulatory, technological, and operational framework to run a trusted business in the UAE, backed by investor confidence and regulator approval.
Token issuers take note: VARA reviews come with added costs for whitepapers, amendments, and legal opinions.
3. Whitepaper & Issuance-Related Fees
For businesses that issue virtual assets (tokens, coins, etc.), VARA may charge extra document review and legal assessment fees, such as:
Whitepaper Review Fee
Whitepaper submission: AED 5,000; detailed review: up to AED 50,000 (max AED 55,000 including submission).
Whitepaper Amendment Fee
Whitepaper amendment (submission) fee: AED 5,000 per update, payable at each amendment.
VARA Legal Opinion Review Fee
Legal opinion or memorandum review fee: up to AED 4,000, payable for review and written confirmation by VARA regarding the regulatory perimeter applicable to a virtual asset activity.
4. Other Licensing & Exit Fees
Even after your VARA license has been issued, you may need to make changes—such as updating business details, amending licensed activities, or winding down operations. VARA charges fixed fees for these actions:
License Amendment
500 AED Request
Fee Approximately in USD ~$136
License Withdrawal
10,000 AED Request
Fee Approximately in USD ~$2,722
5. Fee Independence
It’s important to understand that VARA fees are not “all-in” business costs. They are separate regulatory charges, applied only for licensing and supervising Virtual Asset Service Providers
(VASPs). What This Means in Practice
(VASPs). What This Means in Practice
Separate from corporate setup
Even after paying VARA’s application, supervision, or issuance fees, you must still budget for company incorporation costs (trade license, incorporation documents, visas, etc.) in your chosen jurisdiction (Dubai mainland or free zone).
No overlap with free zones
Free zones such as DIFC, DMCC, ADGM, or DWTC charge their own license and renewal fees. These are independent of VARA’s regulatory supervision fees. You will always pay both:
Free zone / corporate license renewalVARA regulatory supervision
Free zone / corporate license renewalVARA regulatory supervision
Not tied to other UAE regulators
Other regulators (e.g., DFSA, FSRA, SCA, CBUAE) may have their own fee structures. If your business falls under VARA, its fees apply exclusively for virtual assets activities—not as a replacement for broader financial licensing costs.
Annual renewals are separate
VARA’s Annual Supervision Fees do not reduce or replace the yearly renewal costs of your company’s legal entity.
Firms should budget both streams every year.
Firms should budget both streams every year.
Why VARA Keeps Fees Separate
VARA’s fees are designed to cover only virtual asset regulation—kept separate from free zone, corporate, or other UAE regulator costs—so businesses have full clarity on what they’re paying for.
Transparency in VARA Fees
Each regulator—corporate, free zone, or financial—manages its own oversight. VARA’s fees apply only to virtual asset activities, ensuring complete transparency.
No Double Counting of Costs
VARA charges fund virtual asset supervision only, while free zone and corporate fees cover business setup and administration. This keeps costs fair and non-overlapping.
Clear Financial Breakdown for Businesses
By keeping fees separate, VARA gives firms a straightforward cost structure, avoiding confusion when comparing licensing pathways in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the wider UAE.
Key Takeaway
Paying VARA fees does not exempt you from paying free zone or corporate license fees. They are two separate layers of compliance—one for your company structure, and one for your virtual asset regulatory obligations.
Skip the Delays, Secure Your VARA License with SecureVisa Group
Getting a VARA license isn’t just paperwork—it’s navigating two layers of compliance at once: your company setup and your virtual asset regulatory obligations. Miss a step, and you face delays, rejections, or extra costs. That’s where SecureVisa Group comes in.
We don’t just file forms—we build the full compliance and cybersecurity ecosystem regulators trust. If investing in expert guidance can save you weeks of back-and-forth and get your license approved faster, why gamble? With SecureVisa Group, you avoid the headache, stay audit-ready, and focus on scaling your business in Dubai’s fast-growing virtual asset market.
We don’t just file forms—we build the full compliance and cybersecurity ecosystem regulators trust. If investing in expert guidance can save you weeks of back-and-forth and get your license approved faster, why gamble? With SecureVisa Group, you avoid the headache, stay audit-ready, and focus on scaling your business in Dubai’s fast-growing virtual asset market.