One among the seven United Arab Emirates (UAE) Emirates, Ras Al Khaimah, is gearing ready to offer a free zone for enterprises that engage in digital and virtual assets, as the country’s approach to the industry continues to attract worldwide crypto players. According to the RAK Digital Assets Oasis( RAK DAO), it’s going to be a goal-oriented, creative free zone for unregulated activities in the virtual assets market. The release states that applications will start to be accepted in the middle of 2023.
Businesses that provide solutions and services for digital and virtual assets in cutting-edge industries like the metaverse, blockchain technology, utility tokens, digital currency wallets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), decentralised applications (DApps), and other Web3-related businesses will be allowed to operate in the free zone. The long-term development of the free zone for upcoming businesses is a goal as per the words of Sheikh Mohammed bin Humaid bin Abdullah Al Qasimi, chairman of the RAK International Corporate Centre, which oversees the upcoming free zone. Being the first free zone in the globe exclusively for businesses dealing in digital and virtual assets, they look forward to assisting international businesses in achieving their goals.
With the exception of the UAE’s criminal code, free zones or free-trade zones are places where company owners own a hundred per cent of their firms and have complete control over their own tax regulations and policy structures. Irina Heaver, a cryptocurrency attorney who is based in Dubai, has outlined the procedures for the new free zone and believes that RAK DAO would commence with non-financial activity initially, and then may include financial operations at a later date. The SCA has jurisdiction all across the Emirates, with the exception of the economic free trade zones, such as the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), that are run by separate financial institutions, in accordance with the nation’s most current federal digital assets legislation.
The country has established over 40 multifunctional free zones, such as the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), DIFC, as well as the ADGM, which have drawn several blockchains, cryptocurrency, and Web3 companies. The new free zone is the latest to join this list. For cryptocurrency companies looking for locations with friendlier legislation, the UAE has positioned itself as a progressive location.
To safeguard shareholders and establish rules for the digital assets sector, Dubai introduced its virtual assets legislation and the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority in March 2022. The ADGM’s regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, released basic guidelines in September 2022 outlining how it would regulate and supervise the latest asset category and its service providers.