Virtual Assets Standards
The Company has established standards for the virtual assets that it provides virtual assets activities in relation to. Due diligence taking into those standards where applicable will be conducted on the virtual assets prior to, and at all times during, the Company providing the virtual assets activities in relation to such virtual assets:
· Its market capitalisation (no less than USD1 billion), fully diluted value and liquidity, and whether such metrics have trended downwards over time;
• Its design, features and use cases, whether or not intended by the Issuer or relevant developers;
• Whether there are features which may materially affect the Company’s compliance with applicable laws, Regulations, Rules or Directives, including but not limited to those relating to AML/CFT, sanctions, securities, intellectual property;
• Regulatory treatment by VARA and other appropriate authorities [including those outside of the Emirate], in particular whether the issuance of the Virtual Asset has received any regulatory approvals;
• Whether a Virtual Asset is prohibited by VARA or any other appropriate authorities [both inside or outside the UAE] in jurisdictions in which the Company will provide VA Activities, or equivalent activities, in relation to such Virtual Asset;
• The security and immutability of the underlying DLT protocol;
• Its future development [e.g. “roadmap”] as communicated by the Issuer and/or relevant developers;
• Whether it may be susceptible to price manipulation for any reason and relevant mitigations that will be implemented by the Company
• Whether potential or actual conflicts of interest may arise should the Company provide any VA Activities in relation to the Virtual Asset and relevant mitigations;
• The background of its Issuer including, but not limited to, relevant experience in the Virtual Asset sector and whether it has been subject to any investigations or claims in relation to fraud or deceit;
• If the Virtual Asset represents rights to any other assets, the enforceability of such rights;
• Sufficient assets are available to satisfy any obligation with respect to any VA Activities;
• The Company shall ensure that Virtual Asset terms and conditions reflect, to the extent possible, the operation of any existing underlying physical market and avoid adverse impacts to such market [if applicable]; and
• The Company should review Virtual Asset terms and conditions on a periodic basis for appropriate correlation with any physical market to ensure such terms and conditions conform to standards and practices in that physical market [if applicable].
The Company will regularly and on an ongoing basis, assess relevant information to ensure that a virtual asset it provides activities in relation to continues to meet the Company’s virtual assets standards. All assessments shall be kept for eight (8) years and such records shall be provided with VARA upon request.
Virtual assets activities in relation to a virtual asset might be suspended when virtual assets no longer meet its virtual assets standard. The Company will notify VARA as soon as possible after becoming aware that a virtual asset no longer meets its virtual assets standard and shall take such steps VARA may direct to minimize adverse impact on clients, if any.