Today in crypto, BitGo secures a VARA license as Dubai’s regulator announces a wave of enforcement actions. NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange backs crypto prediction market Polymarket with a $2 billion investment at a $9 billion valuation, while the European Union reportedly weighs sanctions against A7A5, a stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble.
BitGo secures VARA license amid regulatory crackdown
Digital asset infrastructure company BitGo said it had secured regulatory approval to offer specific services in Dubai amid the agency’s announcement of several enforcement actions.
In a Tuesday notice, BitGo said its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) arm had secured a broker-dealer license from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai, allowing the company to provide “regulated digital asset trading and intermediation services to institutional clients.”
The move came just a few weeks after BitGo said its European subsidiary could offer crypto services to local investors under a license from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority.
“This approval allows us to serve institutional clients with greater scale, confidence, and integrity, while also underscoring the accelerating momentum within Dubai’s digital asset ecosystem,” said Ben Choy, general manager of BitGo MENA.
The notice of the licensing approval came less than 24 hours after VARA said it had issued financial penalties against 19 companies for “unlicensed Virtual Asset activities and “breaches of VARA’s Marketing Regulations.” VARA’s enforcement actions filed in 2025 included those against the TON DLT Foundation and Hokk Finance.
NYSE parent invests $2 billion in Polymarket at $9 billion valuation
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has invested $2 billion in cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket.
According to a Tuesday Polymarket X post, the ICE invested $2 billion in the prediction market. The deal values Polymarket at a $9 billion post-money valuation.
ICE’s NYSE is the world’s largest stock exchange by market capitalization, exceeding $25 trillion as of July 2024. Its interest is the latest move that fuses the United States’ traditional financial landscape with the cryptocurrency industry.
Polymarket is a crypto-powered prediction market where people buy and sell “shares” in real-world event outcomes (elections, sports, crypto prices), with market prices reflecting the crowd’s implied probabilities. Trades typically settle in stablecoins, and markets are resolved against predefined, verifiable sources, with access for US users restricted due to regulatory reasons.
EU weighs sanctions on ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5: Report
The European Union is reportedly considering sanctions against A7A5, a Russian ruble-backed stablecoin that’s the world’s largest non-US-dollar pegged stablecoin.
The sanctions would prohibit EU-based organizations and individuals from engaging directly or indirectly through third parties with the token, according to a report from Bloomberg on Monday that cited documents related to the proposal.
Several banks in Russia, Belarus and Central Asia are in the firing line too, accused of enabling sanctioned entities to conduct crypto-related transactions.
The EU also imposed sanctions against crypto platforms on Sept. 19, which blocked all transactions for Russian residents and restricted dealings with foreign banks tied to the country’s sector.
A week later, A7A5’s market capitalization spiked on Sept. 26 from around $140 million to over $491 million, a 250% jump in one day, according to CoinMarketCap.
