Flipster crypto exchange receives license in UAE

Global crypto trading platform Flipster has received a VASP license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), allowing it to offer crypto exchange services in the UAE to both retail and institutional clients.

This comes after Flipster received an in-principle license earlier this year. The license marks a key step in Flipster’s expansion into the Middle East, where the UAE has become one of the most active jurisdictions for regulated virtual asset service providers.

Flipster, founded in 2021, is known as a perpetual futures trading platform offering access to crypto markets and selected traditional finance markets through perpetual products. The platform says it serves more than one million users globally and processes over US$193 billion in annual perpetual futures trading volume.

With the UAE license, Flipster is expected to bring regulated crypto exchange services to the local market at a time when demand for derivatives and perpetual futures is growing. Perpetual futures are among the most widely traded products in crypto, allowing traders to take long or short positions without an expiry date.

Dubai VARA recently introduced a comprehensive regulatory framework for virtual asset exchange-traded derivatives, allowing licensed VASPs to offer products such as futures, options and perpetual contracts subject to explicit authorization, client suitability rules, margin and leverage controls, asset segregation and enhanced disclosures.

Previously, Dubai has already seen regulated derivatives activity from global exchanges such as OKX, which launched retail futures, perpetual contracts and options under a VARA framework, while VARA’s derivatives rulebook has positioned the emirate as a regulated market for advanced crypto trading products.