Komainu, a hybrid cryptocurrency custodian, has been granted a provisional license to operate in Dubai, making it the newest blockchain company to start operations there.  

Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) awarded operational readiness to Komainu as due diligence was performed according to the regulator's requirements. As a result, the company Komainu which is backed by $471 billion Japanese investment bank Nomura, only has provisional approval to conduct business in Dubai. 

Komainu, which specializes in custody solutions to protect digital assets for financial institutions, will be among the first fully regulated digital asset custody services for institutional clients in the area due to this approval.  

Komainu said If we will expand our services in Dubai once receive complete approval. Through the alliance between Ledger, a provider of digital asset security, CoinShares, a manager of digital assets, and the largest bank in Japan, Nomura which jointly formed Komainu, the company intends to provide institutional digital asset custody to the area and support Dubai's efforts to establish itself as a center for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.  

The admission of Komainu to the VARA hierarchy is representative of the confidence and legitimacy that the Virtual Assets market is gaining when backed by such strong endorsement from traditional finance leaders such as Nomura, stated H.E. Helal Saeed Almarrsi, chairman of VARA. 

According to Sebastian Widmann, head of the strategy at Komainu, the firm is bringing a much-needed service to institutions operating in regulated crypto markets by expanding into the MENA region. A new digital asset hub is being developed by Dubai and VARA, bringing in like-minded companies to strengthen the country's growing crypto ecosystem. 

A few months before, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Binance, received a license from VARA in March. 

About Komainu :

Komainu was established in 2020 through a partnership between European digital asset manager CoinShares, the French hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger, and the Japanese financial bank Nomura. Komainu, which has its corporate headquarters in Jersey, Channel Islands, closed a $25 million Series A funding in 2021. By the end of the year, Komainu, a company with its headquarters in the Channel Islands, hopes to have at least 10 employees working there.