Dubai cracks down on unlicensed crypto firms as UAE reinforces global crypto hub status

  • Dubai’s VARA fines 19 crypto firms for operating without proper licenses.
  • Penalties range from AED 100,000 to AED 600,000 with immediate cease orders.
  • VARA and SCA’s partnership ensures unified rules across the country’s digital asset market.

The United Arab Emirates is reinforcing its position as a global crypto hub—but not without rules.

As the country’s virtual asset market expands, regulators are stepping up enforcement to protect investors and ensure transparency.

Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has taken decisive action against unlicensed operators, signalling that the city’s crypto ambitions are rooted in compliance, not chaos.

VARA fines 19 crypto firms for unlicensed activity

VARA recently fined 19 companies for conducting virtual asset activities without proper authorisation or in violation of its marketing regulations.

The penalties, which ranged from AED 100,000 to AED 600,000, were accompanied by cease-and-desist orders, requiring the firms to immediately halt all operations and promotional activities in Dubai.

The list of penalised companies included UAEC Digital Fintech FZCO, Morpheus Software Technology FZE (operating as FUZE), TON DLT Foundation, GLEEC DMCC, UEEX Technology, LBK Blockchain FZCO, Triple A Technologies, Hatom Labs, Hokk Finance, Mastercoin DMC, and A to Z Globe DMCC, among others.

VARA said these firms had breached regulatory obligations and failed to obtain the required licences for offering crypto-related services.

Each company was ordered to stop marketing unapproved crypto products and services to residents or entities within Dubai.

Dubai steps up enforcement to maintain market integrity

The crackdown marks one of VARA’s strongest enforcement actions since its inception, reinforcing Dubai’s message that virtual asset activities must align with its regulatory framework.

According to VARA, unlicensed operations pose serious financial, legal, and reputational risks—not only to investors but also to the stability of the wider digital asset ecosystem.

In previous cases, VARA had imposed similar penalties on entities found in breach of its licensing rules.

Morpheus Software Technology FZE (FUZE), for instance, was previously fined for anti-money laundering violations and governance failures.

The firm has since accepted the findings, submitted a remediation plan, and allowed VARA to appoint an independent compliance monitor to oversee corrective measures.

These actions demonstrate Dubai’s intention to foster a secure market that supports innovation without compromising investor protection.

UAE aims for unified crypto regulation

Earlier this year, the UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) and VARA signed a strategic partnership to harmonise regulatory frameworks across the country.

The collaboration seeks to eliminate gaps between federal and emirate-level rules, ensuring that all virtual asset service providers operate under consistent oversight.

This unified approach is part of the UAE’s broader effort to attract global crypto firms while maintaining strict standards for transparency and risk management.

The partnership between SCA and VARA also allows both regulators to share data, streamline licensing, and strengthen supervision of the fast-growing digital asset market.

Strong adoption drives regulatory evolution

While the UAE enforces tighter rules, it continues to see one of the highest rates of crypto adoption globally.

Experts recently ranked the UAE among the top countries for digital asset ownership, with 25.3 percent of its population holding cryptocurrencies.

That growth—fuelled by strong investor interest and government support—has turned the UAE into one of the most active markets in the world for blockchain and decentralised finance initiatives.

Between 2019 and 2025, crypto adoption in the UAE reportedly increased by more than 200 percent.

In global rankings, the country scored 99.7 on a composite crypto adoption index, just behind Singapore, which scored 100.

Such widespread adoption has made regulation more urgent.

Authorities are aware that unlicensed operations could undermine investor confidence, and VARA’s latest enforcement drive aims to set clear boundaries for firms entering the market.

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ZKsync introduces Atlas upgrade for one-second finality: what this means for ZK price

  • The ZKsync team has announced the launch of its Atlas upgrade.
  • Atlas is designed to boost transaction finality to one second.
  • ZK price rose 7% amid the news, and bulls look poised for more.

ZKsync has unveiled its Atlas upgrade, promising near-instantaneous zero-knowledge (ZK) finality to enhance enterprise adoption and high-throughput applications.

This milestone arrives amid a robust week for the ZK token.

Per the latest data, ZK has spiked more than 20% in the past week as investor confidence reemerges across the market.

What is ZKsync’s Atlas upgrade?

ZKsync, developed by Matter Labs, has long been at the forefront of ZK rollup technology, enabling secure and efficient scaling of Ethereum.

The Atlas upgrade, rolled out on October 6, 2025, represents a pivotal evolution of its ZK Stack framework.

Specifically, the Atlas upgrade bolsters the ZKsync network as the protocol looks to meet the demands of institutional and enterprise users transitioning operations on-chain.

At its core, Atlas introduces a high-performance sequencer engineered to process between 25,000 and 30,000 transactions per second, a leap that addresses longstanding bottlenecks in blockchain throughput.

ZKsync says central to the upgrade is the integration of Airbender, an innovative proving system that achieves sub-second confirmations for ZK proofs.

“Applications such as onchain order books, perps, exchanges, and AMMs depend on fast finality to reduce risk. Airbender allows systems to verify and settle extremely quickly,” the platform wrote in a blog post.

Per ZKsync, it is proofs, and not intermediaries, that carry trust across domains.

“Anyone (chain operators, exchanges, even a user’s mobile device) can quickly verify a succinct proof and act with confidence. This is also how private chains can keep user data private while still composing with public liquidity, revealing only the ZK proof of correctness.”

ZK price forecast

The ZK token, native to the ZKsync ecosystem, has shown promising momentum amid the past week’s crypto market bounce.

ZKsync looks poised to continue higher as the Atlas upgrade goes live.

Notably, bulls have retested the critical resistance level at $0.06.

Intraday highs of $0.062 saw buyers come close to breaching a supply wall at $0.065, in place since Sept. 13.

Gains of 7% in the past 24 hours and 20% over the past week show bullish momentum.

With on-chain activity higher and the upgrade’s implications for scalability apparent, an influx of liquidity into the ecosystem will likely catalyse a ZK price uptick to $0.1.

Bulls will target the psychological $1 mark.

However, downside risks persist if the broader market sentiment flips amid profit-taking.

Conditions across the risk assets market will be critical to traders.

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BNY Mellon explores tokenized deposits to modernize payments infrastructure

  • BNY Mellon explores blockchain-based tokenized deposits to modernize payment infrastructure.
  • JPMorgan and HSBC have launched tokenized deposit pilots for faster, cheaper cross-border transfers.
  • Global banks embrace blockchain as new regulations boost confidence in digital asset innovation.

The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BNY Mellon) is exploring the use of tokenized deposits as part of its ongoing efforts to modernize its payments infrastructure.

The initiative aims to enable clients to make payments using blockchain technology, reflecting a broader shift among global financial institutions toward the adoption of digital asset frameworks.

According to Carl Slabicki, Executive Platform Owner for Treasury Services at BNY Mellon, the project aligns with the bank’s work to enhance real-time, instant, and cross-border payments.

Tokenized deposits, he said, could allow banks to “overcome legacy technology constraints,” streamlining the movement of deposits and payments both within their own ecosystems and, eventually, across the wider financial market as industry standards mature.

BNY Mellon’s treasury services business processes approximately $2.5 trillion in payments daily, underscoring the potential scale and impact of this innovation.

The bank views blockchain as a tool for making transactions faster, more efficient, and more secure — a vision shared by several leading players in the global banking sector.

Banks advance toward blockchain-based payments

Tokenized deposits are essentially digital representations of customer deposits, offering a claim against a commercial bank.

Unlike traditional transfers that may take days to settle, transactions using tokenized deposits are processed on blockchain rails, enabling instantaneous settlement.

Advocates say this model could lower costs and allow transactions to occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

BNY Mellon’s move follows similar experiments by other major institutions.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. launched a pilot program in June for its own token, JPMD, which represents US dollar deposits at the bank.

Meanwhile, HSBC Holdings Plc rolled out a tokenized deposit service in September, giving corporate clients the ability to transfer currencies across borders more efficiently and securely.

In Europe, the momentum has extended to collaborative efforts among banks.

A consortium of nine financial institutions — including UniCredit SpA, ING Groep NV, and DekaBank — announced plans to jointly develop a stablecoin, a blockchain-based token pegged to fiat currency and backed by liquid assets such as government securities.

Industry momentum and regulatory clarity

The banking industry’s renewed focus on blockchain comes amid increasing regulatory clarity around digital assets.

The United States recently introduced regulations for stablecoins, while the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework is now being implemented.

These developments are providing traditional financial institutions with greater confidence to experiment with blockchain-based payment solutions.

BNY Mellon, one of the world’s largest custodians with $55.8 trillion in assets under custody or administration, has been a consistent participant in blockchain initiatives.

In July, the bank announced a collaboration with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to use blockchain to maintain ownership records of money market funds.

Additionally, BNY Mellon is among over 30 global financial institutions working with Swift to develop a blockchain-based shared ledger for real-time cross-border payments.

The exploration of tokenized deposits represents another step in BNY Mellon’s broader digital transformation strategy.

As the financial system continues its gradual evolution toward tokenized and blockchain-enabled assets, BNY Mellon’s initiatives highlight how legacy institutions are adapting to a decentralized future — one where efficiency, transparency, and interoperability could redefine global finance.

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Chainlink price forecast: LINK eyes $25 as rally continues

Key takeaways

  • LINK is up 2% in the last 24 hours and is now trading above $22.
  • The coin could rally above $25 soon if the bullish trend continues.

LINK soars above $22 as integrations continue

LINK, the native coin of the Chainlink blockchain, is up 6.5% in the last 24 hours. The coin is now trading above $22 per coin and could rally higher in the near term. Its positive performance comes as Chainlink’s products have gained massive integration in recent weeks. 

On Monday, BNB Chain, one of the world’s largest blockchain ecosystems, adopted the Chainlink data standard to make official U.S. Department of Commerce data available onchain.

The adoption will allow developers to leverage this data to unlock innovative use cases, including: issuance of new types of digital assets, prediction markets leveraging transparent macroeconomic inputs, perpetual futures markets benchmarked to official government data, and DeFi protocol risk management.

LINK to rally above $25 amid bullish momentum

The LINK/USD 4-hour chart is bullish and efficient as Chainlink has performed excellently in recent days. With an RSI of 55, LINK is showing signs of growth and could record further bullish momentum in the coming days.

The MACD lines also crossed into the positive zone a few days ago, indicating that buyers are currently in control of the market. If the bullish trend continues, LINK could surge past the first major resistance level at $25.22. An extended rally would allow it to aim for the August high of $27.60.

LINK/USD 4H Chart

However, if LINK undergoes a correction, it could retest the TLQ and support level at $21.488. Failure to protect this level could see LINK decline towards the $20.3 region. LINK is currently bullish, with technical indicators suggesting further upward movement in the near term. The recent major integrations and increased activity within the ecosystem could allow LINK to rally higher over the coming days and weeks. 

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BNB hits $1,250. How high can it go? Check forecast

Key takeaways

  • BNB has hit a new all-time high of $1,258.
  • The coin has rallied by over 20% in the last seven days, outperforming the broader market. 

BNB hits a new ATH as active monthly addresses soar

BNB, the native coin of the Binance ecosystem, has hit a new all-time high of $1,256. The rally comes as BNB Chain continues to set new and impressive records. BNB Chain monthly active addresses surged to an all-time high of 60 million, up 200% since the start of the year. 

In addition to that, BNB’s Total Value Locked (TVL) increased from $7.58 billion on September 27 to $8.69 billion on Monday, its highest level since May 2022. The surge in its TVL indicates growing activity within the BNB ecosystem 

Finally, data obtained from CoinGlass shows that the futures’ Open Interest (OI) in BNB at exchanges hit a new all-time high of $2.57 billion on Monday. The surge in OI shows that new money is entering the market, with buyers betting on BNB rallying higher in the near term. 

Will BNB hit $1,500 soon?

The BNB/USD 4-hour chart is bullish and efficient as the coin has been rallying in recent weeks. The coin rebounded from a key support level of $730.01 on August 3 to surpass $1k on September 21. 

BNB/USD 4H Chart

After retesting the low of $948.45 on September 26, BNB has added 24%  to its value and now trades above $1,250 per coin. If BNB continues its rally, it could hit the $1,300 mark in the near term. An extended rally would allow it to trade above $1,500 for the first time in its history. 

The BNB/USD 4-hour RSI of 81 shows that the coin is currently heading into the overbought region. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bullish crossover last week, indicating a bullish bias. 

However, BB could face a correction following its recent rally. If that happens, BNB could find support at its recent low of $1,134.

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