Crypto investment platforms eToro and M2 received various degrees of approval to offer their services in the United Arab Emirates from the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority, which oversees the UAE’s international financial center, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
EToro received approval for a Financial Services Permission (FSP) that allows a provider to operate as a broker for securities, derivatives and crypto assets. Cryptocurrency exchange M2, on the other hand, got recognition as a fully regulated Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and custodian that can on-board UAE residents and institutional clients.
According to Yoni Assia, founder and CEO of eToro, the new UAE licensing is “a key milestone in our continued global expansion.” In September, eToro received Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) registration from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). At the time, deputy CEO Hedva Ber highlighted the importance of a European operating license for a crypto company that aims for global expansion.
M2’s services in the UAE for retail and institutional clients will include crypto custody, UAE dirham-based Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading and on/off-ramp services for the dirham. M2 CEO Stefan Kimmel sees the timing of license issuance as perfect, given the return of positive investor sentiment.
While the UAE continues to attract international crypto players with operational licenses, the registration authority of the ADGM introduced comprehensive regulations governing Web3 organizations in November.
The Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Foundations Regulations 2023 aim to provide regulatory clarity to blockchain foundations, Web3 entities, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and traditional foundations expanding into DLT.
The regulations allow for the creation of a “DLT Foundation” by submitting a signed charter that includes a description of the foundation’s initial assets and details about its governance and token issuance (if any), along with the organization’s white paper, tokenomics paper and a link to a technical document called a DLT Framework.
The Conservative Party will leave a key human rights treaty if it wins the election, its leader Kemi Badenoch has said.
Ms Badenoch announced the policy to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) ahead of the Conservative Party’s conference next week.
Despite many Tory MPs having expressed displeasure with the treaty, and the court that upholds treaty rights in recent years, it had not been party policy for the UK to exit it.
The move follows a review on the impact of the UK’s ECHR membership conducted by shadow attorney general Baron Wolfson.
Lord Wolfson’s nearly 200-page report said the ECHR had impacted government policy in numerous areas.
The report said this includes limiting government’s ability to address immigration issues, potentially hampering restrictions on climate change policy, and impacting government ability to prioritise British citizens for social housing and public services.
But leaving the ECHR would “not be a panacea to all the issues that have arisen in recent years”, Lord Wolfson said.
It comes after the Reform Party in August said they would take the UK out of the ECHR if elected.
The Conservatives have increasingly come under threat from Reform and are being trailed in the polls by them.
What is the ECHR?
The ECHR was established in the 1950s, drafted in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Holocaust, to protect people from serious human rights violations, with Sir Winston Churchill as a driving force.
It’s 18 sections guarantee rights such as the right to life, the prohibition of torture, the right to a fair trial, the right to private and family life and the right to freedom of expression.
It has been used to halt the deportation of migrants in 13 out of 29 UK cases since 1980.
Image: Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Pic: PA
A political issue
Leaving the ECHR would breach the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the peace settlement deal between the British and Irish governments on how Northern Ireland should be governed.
Labour has in recent days said it was considering how Article 3, the prohibition on torture, and Article 8, the right to respect for private and family life, are interpreted. The sections have been used to halt deportation attempts.
The Liberal Democrats and Greens are in favour of the ECHR.