What this is
Permission to offer derivatives referencing virtual assets — futures, options, contracts for difference and perpetuals — and the prior question of whether the instrument you have built is a derivative at all.
Why it is its own service
Because it is its own permission. A venue with a spot licence does not thereby have a derivatives licence, and the gap between the two is where this goes wrong most often: a product is designed, built and marketed on the assumption that an existing permission stretches to cover it.
The perimeter question here has a second edge as well. A contract referencing an asset can be a derivative, and it can also be a security — and those are different regulators with different rulebooks. The mechanics decide it. The product name does not.
What the work involves
Characterising the instrument before it is built: what it references, how it settles, what the holder is owed, and what happens in a liquidation. Scoping the permission that actually covers it. Preparing the application, and the client-facing framework that comes with it — eligibility, suitability, leverage and the disclosures that go in front of a client before they trade.
Then carrying the file through the questions that follow submission, which on a newer part of a rulebook is where most of the elapsed time goes.
What we will tell you early
If the instrument is a security rather than a derivative, and the licensing route changes accordingly. If the venue's existing permission does not reach the product, and what would have to be added. If the client base you have described cannot be onboarded to the product you have described, which is a cheaper conversation before launch than after.
Where this is moving
This is among the newest parts of the UAE framework and among the fastest moving. Anything on this page that reads as a statement of the current rule should be checked against the regulator's own publication on the day you rely on it — including by us, which is why this page carries the review flag.
Reguladores
Preguntas frecuentes
Does a spot licence let me offer perpetuals?
Treat that as no until the permission says otherwise. Derivatives sit in a different part of the rulebook from spot trading, with their own conditions on who may be onboarded and on what terms. A venue that adds them to an existing spot permission without checking is the most common way this goes wrong.
Is a perpetual a derivative or a security?
That is the first question, not a formality, and the answer is not settled by what the product is called. It turns on the mechanics — what is referenced, how it settles, what the holder is actually owed — and the answer decides which regulator you are in front of.
Can I offer these to retail clients?
Where derivatives are permitted at all, retail access carries conditions that spot trading does not — eligibility and suitability assessment, limits on leverage, and disclosure obligations. Those conditions are part of the licence, not a compliance afterthought.
Fuentes
- VARA Exchange Services Rulebook — exchange-traded virtual asset derivatives — Rulebook version and commencement date to be confirmed against VARA's own publication before reliance
- Scope of work described here reflects our practice, not a regulatory requirement — Regulatory statements on these pages carry the same review status as elsewhere on the site