The Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) of Dubai released on Thursday emirate-wide regulatory guidelines for the marketing, advertising, and promotion of virtual assets.
According to a statement, the rules apply to all forms of outreach, communications, and advertising, including the dissemination of knowledge, public awareness raising, client engagement, and/or investment solicitation.
The regulations apply to all virtual asset-related communications made by any organization using media outlets, search engines, and online or offline publication platforms with a Dubai presence that specifically target consumers in the Dubai market.
Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), the city’s dedicated crypto regulator, reportedly announced new regulatory guidelines on marketing, advertising and promotions of virtual assets on Aug. 25.
In the rules, the VARA referred to all forms of outreach, communications and advertising, dissemination of information, building awareness, customer engagement, investor solicitation and others, the local news agency Gulf News reported.
Additionally, the rules mandate that all Dubai-licensed virtual asset service providers, including advertising platforms, guarantee factual truth, clearly state any promotional objective, and never insinuate that their returns are guaranteed.
VARA, which was founded in March 2022, is the sole independent virtual asset regulator in the world and has been tasked with developing a framework that would allow for borderless economic opportunity while maintaining market security.
“These regulations specifically address marketing and communications activities, ahead of operationalizing the MVP licensees so that any mass-market information dissemination, and consumer solicitation are designed to safeguard community interests,” the statement said.