Henson Orser, the former president of digital assets custody firm Komainu, has been appointed the CEO of Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).
Osrser shared the update on his LinkedIn page, which now states that he is the Chief executive Officer of VARA from January 2023. He is the authority’s first-ever CEO since it was established last year.
The news comes as VARA is reportedly planning to reveal its final crypto framework in the coming weeks.
Prior to taking the reins at VARA, Orser served as the president of Komainu, a digital asset custody solution jointly built by investment bank Nomura, investment house CoinShares and crypto assets security firm Ledger.
In March 2022, Dubai established VARA, an entity charged with streamlining regulatory application and operating licensing approvals for Virtual Assets including digital assets, products, operators, and exchanges in Dubai.
VARA is currently working towards the start of its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) phase, which means that any crypto business that is granted a license may not yet offer regulated services in the region. Once the MVP phase is operationalised, only then can the licensed firms begin offering regulated products.
Last year, VARA granted provisional licenses to Binance, Komainu, Hex Trust and FTX. Following its collapse, FTX had its license revoked in November.
