Two firms, Morgan Lewis and CFC MENA behind the recent VASP licenses in UAE

In the past week, as VASPs acquire license approvals within the UAE, the legal and business advisors who have supported them are also showcasing their work and efforts into the establishment and acquisition of these license, the first was Morgan Lewis who posted on LinkedIn that they advised CoinBase on their tokenization hub in ADGM, and then CFC MENA which announced how it supported Capital Vault for its Capital Market Authority license.

We are starting to see how legal and business advisors showcasing their active roles in these license approvals, when before they had been more in the background.

On Linkedin, Morgan Lewis advised Coinbase on the establishment of its international tokenization hub in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and its receipt of the necessary regulatory licenses and approvals from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Coinbase is now authorized to arrange deals in investments and provide custody in order to facilitate its launch of tokenized securities, providing the regulatory foundation for Coinbase’s international tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi.

The post added, “Teaming with compliance specialists Trifecta Advisory Group who led on the ADGM licensing process, Morgan Lewis advised Coinbase on all legal and regulatory structuring and capital markets aspects of the project, including securing the relevant approvals from the FSRA Listing Authority.”

“Coinbase will always look to be legally innovative and thoughtful in launching new products, which is what we did here,” said Molly Abraham, General Counsel, Coinbase. “What we’ve built in the ADGM combines all four elements: ADGM issuance, full shareholder rights, DeFi-first distribution, and protocol-level compliance enforcement. That combination is what makes this the first true onchain security without rehypothecation or credit risk in the underlying security.”

Then this week, when Capital Vault part of Capital.com received its virtual asset exchange license, CFC MENA posted that it had supported Capital Vault in securing this license from the UAE Capital Market Authority.

According to CFC MENA, the approval puts Capital Vault among the first five firms to be licensed under CMA virtual asset framework, and the first Virtual asset custody provider.

Others such as Septten have also supported VASPs such as Bybit and Fasset in both CMA and VARA Dubai as have many others. The importance of having advisory and legal firms guiding the process will increase as more complex licensing requirements commence, especially in the realm of tokenization and others.