Abu Dhabi Grants FSP for Rain To Offer Crypto Services for Residents

The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority granted the first Financial Services Permission (FSP) for cryptocurrency company Rain to offer brokerage and custody services to residents in the UAE.

In a statement, Rain said the regulatory authority’s permission allows institutional and a limited number of retail clients who are UAE residents can buy, sell, trade, and store virtual assets through seamless fiat-to-virtual asset transfers in AED.

Rain CEO Joseph Dallago said his company teamed up with a local bank to easily offer services to ensure the protection of the consumers through the supervision of a local regulator and thorough legal framework.

“This is a five-year effort, as we were one of the first exchanges to enquire about licensure back in 2018 when the ADGM released their virtual asset framework,” Dallago noted.

The Bahraini-headquartered crypto firm mainly focuses on offering crypto services across the Middle East and Turkey.

It is worth mentioning that the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority granted the same approval for Binance in November 2022 to offer cryptocurrency custodial services to professional clients after meeting the requirements.

Despite granting FSPs for Binance and Rain, Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) decided in July to suspend the license of crypto exchange BitOasis for not meeting mandated conditions.

VARA issued two market alerts regarding ongoing supervisory controls and enforcement actions initiated against BitOasis. The Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange was required to fulfill mandated conditions within 30 to 60 days to secure the MVP Operational Licence after it obtained the Licence for Institutional and Qualified Retail Investors on April 12 this year.