Amber Group Bags Dubai VASP License, Becomes 45th in Town

Amber Group just added another trophy to the cabinet, securing a shiny new crypto brokerage license in the UAE—courtesy of Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). Another jurisdiction, another checkbox. The crypto compliance merch collection grows.

The Hong Kong-based digital asset firm, operating under the premium tier Amber Premium, has officially registered Amber Premium FZE as a fully licensed Virtual Asset Service Provider. For those keeping score at home like it's a high score on an arcade machine, that makes Amber the 45th VASP to get the green light from VARA. Forty-four others before them. Forty-four pioneers who also realized that the desert has excellent air conditioning for your compliance department.

We're talking about a company that's moved over $1 trillion in cumulative trading volume, serving institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals globally. That's a lot of commas. Somewhere a degen is crying into their pizza rolls, wondering why they weren't born with a nine-figure net worth and access to these kinds of services.

VARA's registry shows Amber is cleared to offer broker-dealer services, lending and borrowing, plus management and investment services—but only for qualified and institutional investors, because retail folks need not apply. Your average crypto tourist with a Ledger and dreams of lambos is politely shown the door. This is the exclusive club that nobody actually wants to join but everyone's pretending doesn't matter.

Quick timeline check: Back in December 2025, Amber International Holding Limited (Nasdaq: AMBR) received preliminary approval. At that point, the outfit was handling 4,900 clients across the HNWI, UHNWI, and institutional segments. Four thousand nine hundred clients. Meanwhile, some kid on a Discord server claims to serve "4,900 best friends" in his pump-and-dump group. Very different vibe.

Hold your horses though—full public access isn't happening yet. The firm's UAE website currently exists purely to satisfy VARA's regulatory imprint requirements. According to Amber, client migration is still in progress, and they won't flip the switch on full operations until migration wraps up and VARA gives the final thumbs up. Basically, the office is furnished but nobody's home yet.