- An exchange needs a license from the regulator where it operates: VARA in Dubai, the FSRA in the ADGM, the DFSA in the DIFC or the CMA elsewhere. Check the register, not the exchange’s own claims.
- Binance, BitOasis, CoinMENA, Crypto.com, OKX and Rain had an active VARA license on 7 October 2026.
- Bybit held only an In-Principle Approval from VARA, which does not allow it to serve clients. Kraken’s ADGM authorization was withdrawn on 19 December 2025.
- We found no deposit guarantee or compensation scheme for crypto. VARA’s custody rules say client assets are not assets of the provider.
This page compares crypto exchanges that serve residents of the UAE and explains how to check one. We do not rank or recommend any exchange, and there are no affiliate links. Licensing comes from the VARA and ADGM registers of 7 October 2026; fees come from each exchange’s own pages on that date. Who regulates what is on regulation.
Who may serve you
VARA says that only entities it has licensed may provide virtual asset services in or from Dubai. Its public register lists firms with a full VASP license and firms with only an In-Principle Approval (IPA), and shows each firm’s CMA registration number. These are exchanges and brokers that consumers in the UAE often use, with their license as shown in the registers:
| Exchange | Legal entity | Regulator | License issued | Licensed activities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Binance FZE | VARA | 15 April 2024 | Exchange (including derivatives), broker-dealer, lending and borrowing, management and investment; retail investors permitted |
| Bitpanda | Bitpanda Broker MENA FZCO | VARA | 19 March 2025 | Broker-dealer |
| BitOasis | BitOasis Technologies FZE | VARA | 29 November 2024 | Broker-dealer |
| CoinMENA | CoinMENA FZE | VARA | 30 November 2023 | Broker-dealer |
| Crypto.com | Foris DAX Middle East FZE | VARA | 3 April 2024 | Exchange (including derivatives), broker-dealer, lending and borrowing, management and investment |
| Deribit | Deribit FZE | VARA | 1 November 2024 | Exchange (including derivatives), broker-dealer |
| HashKey | Hashkey MENA FZE | VARA | 14 April 2025 | Broker-dealer, exchange (including derivatives) |
| OKX | OKX Middle East Fintech FZE | VARA | 17 September 2024 | Exchange (including derivatives), broker-dealer, lending and borrowing, management and investment |
| Rain | Rain MENA FZE | VARA | 5 October 2026 | Exchange, broker-dealer |
| Rain | Rain Trading Limited | FSRA (ADGM) | 22 December 2022 | Providing custody, dealing in investments as agent (virtual assets) |
In total VARA’s register listed 57 firms with a full license on 7 October 2026, many of them brokers, custodians or asset managers for professional clients rather than exchanges for consumers. We could not open the DFSA’s public register or a CMA register of virtual asset firms for this guide (October 2026).
Not licensed, or license withdrawn
- Bybit: Bybit Fintech FZE is in VARA’s register with an In-Principle Approval for exchange services (IPA/24/08/001, 21 August 2024), not a full license. VARA says IPA holders may not serve clients until they have the full license. We found no Bybit entity in the ADGM register.
- Kraken: the ADGM authorization of Payward MENA Holdings Limited (trading facility and custody for virtual assets) was withdrawn on 19 December 2025. Two days earlier the FSRA published a final notice imposing a financial penalty for contraventions of anti-money-laundering requirements. We found no Kraken entity in VARA’s register.
- M2: the ADGM register shows M2 Limited as withdrawn on 26 August 2025. M2 Custody Limited is shown as active, but its entry lists no regulated activities.
- Binance in the ADGM: Binance (AD) Limited, which was not allowed to deal with retail clients, was withdrawn on 8 December 2025. Binance FZE keeps its VARA license (see the table).
- MEXC and KuCoin: VARA fined MX Global Ltd (MEXC) and Peken Global Limited (KuCoin) in June 2026 for serving customers in Dubai without a license, and ordered them to stop.
Fees compared
The table shows what each licensed exchange’s own pages said on 7 October 2026, for a normal customer at the lowest fee level. Several exchanges show their fees only inside the app or on pages we could not open; “Not found” means we could not read the figure on the exchange’s own pages. A spread is the difference between the buying and selling price and is an extra cost on top of any fee.
| Exchange | Simple buy | Advanced (maker / taker) | AED bank deposit | AED withdrawal | Coins to your own wallet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Not found | 0.100% / 0.100% (0.075% when paying fees in BNB) | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| BitOasis | Not found | Volume-based tiers; rates not found | Not found | Not found | Yes, fee not found |
| CoinMENA | Volume-based; rate not found | – | Not found | Fee shown before you confirm | Yes, fee not found |
| Crypto.com | An admin fee may apply, shown before you confirm; rate not stated | Not found | Free by local bank transfer (your bank may charge) | Not found | Yes, after verifying the wallet |
| OKX | Convert: “zero trading fees” (its own claim) | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| Rain | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found |
The fee pages of Rain, BitOasis and CoinMENA could not be opened for this guide; their help centers refer to them. Check the fee page in the app before you deposit, and look at the spread as well as the fee.
Features compared
| Exchange | Coins (its own claim) | AED | Other features named on its pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| BitOasis | 60+ on BitOasis Pro, 200+ trading pairs | AED deposits and withdrawals | Lite (simple) and Pro (order book) versions |
| CoinMENA | Not stated | Bank, card and botim funding | OTC desk for large trades |
| Crypto.com | Not found | AED account for users with a UAE phone number | Exchange (UAE) for institutional clients and qualified retail investors |
| OKX | Not stated | Buy and sell with AED or USD | Convert, spot, futures, Earn |
| Rain | Not found | Not found | Not found |
Under VARA’s travel rule, exchanges ask for the recipient’s details when you send crypto out, and Crypto.com says it requires a small test transfer to verify ownership of an external wallet, whatever the amount.
How to check a provider
- Find out which entity you sign up with: it is in the terms of use and usually in the footer of the website.
- Look that entity up in the register of the right regulator: VARA’s public register for Dubai, the FSRA public register for the ADGM, the DFSA register for the DIFC. Check that it holds a full license, not only an In-Principle Approval, and which activities and investor types it may serve.
- Read VARA’s regulatory notices for alerts, fines and cease-and-desist orders.
- Read the fee page before you deposit, including the cost of withdrawing coins.
A license means a provider is supervised; it does not make the coins themselves safe.
Published enforcement
| Provider | Measure |
|---|---|
| BitOasis Technologies FZE | VARA market alert (10 July 2023): license held as non-operational until conditions were met. BitOasis has held a full VARA license since 29 November 2024. |
| 19 unlicensed firms | VARA fines of AED 100,000 to AED 600,000 and cease-and-desist orders (7 October 2025) |
| Payward MENA Holdings Limited (Kraken) | FSRA financial penalty for anti-money-laundering contraventions (17 December 2025); authorization withdrawn 19 December 2025 |
| CoinMENA FZE | VARA financial penalty for failures in its anti-money-laundering programme (22 June 2026); it remains licensed |
| MX Global Ltd (MEXC) | VARA fine and cease-and-desist order for unlicensed services and onboarding users without KYC, 2022 to April 2026 (22 June 2026) |
| Peken Global Limited (KuCoin) | VARA fine and cease-and-desist order for unlicensed services (24 June 2026) |
The notices we read do not state the amount of the individual fines.
If an exchange fails
We found no deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme for crypto on the official pages we checked (October 2026). What VARA’s Custody Services Rulebook requires from a firm that holds your crypto:
- Not the firm’s assets. “Virtual Assets held by a VASP providing Custody Services are not depository liabilities or assets of the VASP.”
- Segregation. Each client’s virtual assets are kept “in separate VA Wallets containing the Virtual Assets of that client only”.
- No rehypothecation. The firm may not re-use client assets, “regardless of whether they have obtained a client’s consent”.
- Wind-down. In insolvency proceedings the firm must cooperate with the insolvency appointee to carry out its wind-down plan.
These rules lower the risk but do not remove it, and they apply to VARA-licensed custody; firms under other regulators follow their own rules. Coins in your own wallet do not depend on an exchange; see self-custody.
Where to complain
- The exchange first. VARA’s Market Conduct Rulebook says licensed firms “shall acknowledge all complaints within one (1) week” and resolve them within four weeks, or at most eight weeks in extraordinary circumstances. Complaints must be free of charge.
- The regulator. If that does not help, report the firm to the regulator that licensed it (VARA, the FSRA, the DFSA or the CMA). We found no ombudsman or dispute body for crypto complaints on the official pages we checked.
- Police. For fraud, see where to report scams.
- Court. You can always start legal proceedings.
Sources
- VARA: Public register (7 October 2026) (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Public register, Bybit Fintech FZE (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Public register, Binance FZE (last checked October 2026)
- ADGM: FSRA public register (Rain Trading Limited, Payward MENA Holdings Limited, M2 Limited, M2 Custody Limited, Binance (AD) Limited) (last checked October 2026)
- ADGM: FSRA regulatory actions (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Regulatory notices (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Market alert, BitOasis Technologies FZE (10 July 2023) (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: 19 unlicensed firms penalised (7 October 2025) (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Notice of fines, CoinMENA FZE (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Notice of fines, MX Global Ltd (MEXC) (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Notice of fines, Peken Global Limited (KuCoin) (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Custody Services Rulebook, segregation and control (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Company Rulebook, insolvency (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Market Conduct Rulebook, complaints handling requirements (last checked October 2026)
- VARA: Travel Rule (last checked October 2026)
Exchange pages (not official sources)
Fees and features come from each exchange’s own pages, checked on 7 October 2026. They are the exchange’s own statements, not checked by a regulator. The fee pages of Rain, BitOasis and CoinMENA on their main websites could not be opened.
- Binance: Fee schedule (UAE) (last checked October 2026)
- BitOasis: Exploring our fee structure (last checked October 2026)
- BitOasis: Maker and taker fees on BitOasis Pro (last checked October 2026)
- CoinMENA: What are the fees and charges on CoinMENA? (last checked October 2026)
- CoinMENA: How do I place a money withdrawal order? (last checked October 2026)
- CoinMENA: How do I access the OTC services? (last checked October 2026)
- Crypto.com: Does Crypto.com charge any fees for crypto purchases? (last checked October 2026)
- Crypto.com: AED deposit via local bank transfers (last checked October 2026)
- Crypto.com: About Crypto.com Exchange (UAE) (last checked October 2026)
- Crypto.com: UAE travel rule requirements FAQ (last checked October 2026)
- OKX UAE: Fees (last checked October 2026)
This page is general information, not financial advice. Fees and licenses change, so check the register and the exchange’s own fee page before you open an account.