What does the SCA do in the UAE?

The Securities and Commodities Authority licenses and supervises the UAE's onshore capital markets: the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), brokers, investment funds and listed public companies. It was established in 2000 under Federal Law No. 4 of 2000; on 1 January 2026 Federal Decree-Laws No. 32 and 33 of 2025 repealed that law and reconstituted the SCA as the Capital Market Authority (CMA), its legal successor.

Onshore is the operative word. The two financial free zones run their own regulators — the DFSA in the DIFC and the FSRA in ADGM — and an SCA licence has no force inside either one.

The federal rulebook also reaches crypto directly: the SCA's virtual-asset rules (Decision No. 26/RM/2023) were replaced on 13 February 2026 by CMA Decision No. 04/RM/2026, which now sets the federal baseline for virtual-asset activity outside Dubai and the financial free zones. Dubai itself went to a dedicated regulator, and our explainer on how VARA's framework works covers that side.

Where does the SCA's remit end and VARA's begin?

The SCA's remit for virtual assets ends at the Dubai border. Since Dubai Law No. 4 of 2022, virtual-asset activity anywhere in the emirate outside the DIFC is licensed by VARA — and a VARA Broker-Dealer licence, not an SCA one, is what a Dubai OTC desk must hold.

The two authorities coordinate: in September 2024 they signed a cooperation agreement to supervise virtual-asset providers jointly, under which a VARA-licensed provider is registered by default with the federal regulator to serve the wider UAE. Coordination is not equivalence — each licence names its own territory and its own register.

For a seller, the check is geographic before it is anything else. A desk trading with you in Dubai shows a VARA licence; the onshore-versus-DIFC split and the Abu Dhabi picture are mapped in our Dubai vs Abu Dhabi crypto rules comparison. Our own number sits in the licence section of the main page and resolves in VARA's public register.

Why does the SCA matter when you sell USDT?

For a USDT sale in Dubai the SCA matters mainly as a boundary marker: the desk you trade with is regulated by VARA, not the SCA. The SCA becomes relevant when a counterparty quotes the wrong licence for the trade.

An "SCA-licensed broker" offering to buy your USDT in Dubai is citing a securities licence that does not cover that activity in that emirate. The one-minute test is in our guide to checking a VARA licence before you trade — the number must resolve in the regulator's own register, for the right activity.

Once the licence checks out, regulation stops being the variable and cost becomes it. Licensed desks quote one all-in spread; the rest is settlement mechanics, and AED from an approved account goes out by UAEFTS the same business day.

Worked example: pricing one compliant sale

Worked example, as of September 2026: you sell 400,000 USDT to a VARA-licensed desk at a 0.20% all-in spread, inside our published spread bands for that size. USDT tracks the dollar and the dirham is pegged at 3.6725, so the trade converts to AED 1,469,000 less AED 2,938 of spread — AED 1,466,062 lands in your own bank account the same business day.

The SCA appears nowhere in that chain, and that is the point. The licence behind the quote is VARA's, the settlement rail is the central bank's, and the SCA's domain begins only if you move the proceeds into listed securities — just as RERA's begins at a Dubai property purchase.

This guide is informational and is not legal, tax or investment advice, nor an invitation to buy or sell any virtual asset. Rules and figures are as of September 2026 — re-check the sources before acting. Virtual assets may lose their value in full or in part and are subject to extreme volatility.