Flowdesk has received a broker-dealer licence from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), allowing the digital asset trading and technology firm to provide regulated services to qualified and institutional investors in and from the emirate.
The licence was granted to Flowdesk Omega FZE, the company’s Dubai entity, on August 10. It follows in-principle approval received in June and completes VARA’s multi-stage licensing process.
The Dubai approval expands Flowdesk’s regulated operations after the company obtained authorisation in France as a crypto-asset service provider under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The French authorisation was issued through the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF).
Flowdesk provides liquidity and over-the-counter trading services to institutional clients and digital asset issuers. Its services include spot and derivatives trading, treasury management and exchange-traded fund liquidity, with connectivity to more than 150 centralised and decentralised trading venues.
The company operates a non-custodial market-making model under which token issuers retain control of their assets. In Dubai, the new licence provides a regulatory framework for Flowdesk to offer broker-dealer services as regional financial institutions explore stablecoin settlement and tokenised real-world assets.
“Receiving our full licence from VARA reflects the work our teams have invested in governance, compliance, risk management and institutional market infrastructure,” said Guilhem Chaumont, co-founder and CEO of Flowdesk Group. He added that the licence would allow the company to serve institutional and qualified clients in the region under Dubai’s virtual asset regulatory framework.
Flowdesk has offices in Paris, New York, Singapore and Dubai and employs more than 200 people globally. Its investors include BlackRock, Cathay Innovation and Coinbase Ventures.
The licence adds Dubai to Flowdesk’s regulated footprint as digital asset firms increasingly seek authorisation in multiple jurisdictions. For institutional clients, the development reflects a broader shift in which access to digital asset liquidity is becoming more closely tied to jurisdiction-specific licensing, governance and compliance requirements.
