Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority Opens Sandbox-Based Metaverse HQ

Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) recently opened its metaverse-based headquarters in virtual world The Sandbox, a move that the agency said is a step toward making itself “accessible to its industry in their environment,” according to a Bitcoin.com report Thursday (May 5).

VARA is also expected to “facilitate engagement between virtual asset service providers (VASPs), industry influencers and global regulators,” the VARA press release said. The Dubai regulator is signaling a willingness to make the United Arab Emirates (UAE) “the world’s virtual assets capital” with its metaverse HQ launch.

“Dubai maintains a leading position at the forefront of technological transformation,” Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, said in the release. “We have exceeded the role of an early adopter to become an innovator and participant in shaping the future of this technology.

“Today, VARA joins the metaverse to become Dubai’s — and the metaverse’s — first government authority, ushering in a new era in which [the] Dubai government utilizes modern innovations to extend its services and regulatory power to audiences in an open technological expanse, without constraints or borders.”

Hamdan added that the decentralized regulatory model VARA created also allows stakeholders to collaborate on problem-solving and the exchange of knowledge.

“As the first niche regulator for the VA [virtual assets] sector globally, VARA’s Metaverse HQ also makes the UAE the first jurisdiction to enter this platform, reflecting our leadership’s aspiration to facilitate a borderless new market enabling sustainable economic freedom,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, the director-general at the Dubai World Trade Center Authority.

In March, cryptocurrency pioneer Joel Dietz, ​​a founding architect of MetaMask and developer of Ethereum, launched MetaMetaverse, looking to create an interoperable metaverse.

Related: Crypto Pioneer Joel Dietz Creating Interoperable Metaverse

Dietz envisions a digital ecosystem attached to its own layer 1 blockchain that uses a still-being-developed programming language — metametalang — that will enable users to create their own metaverse initiatives. MetaMetaverse’s headquarters are split between Lisbon, Portugal, and Dubai.