Uae’s New Financial Law Pulls Defi And Web3 Into Regulatory Scope

Federal Decree Law No. 6 expands the UAE central bank’s authority over DeFi, ending the “just code” defense and imposing penalties of up to $272 million.

A new financial law in the United Arab Emirates is set to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) and broader Web3 into regulatory parameters, signaling an important shift for the industry.

The UAE’s new central bank law, Federal Decree Law No. 6 of 2025, introduces “one of the most consequential regulatory shifts” for the crypto industry in the region, Irina Heaver, a local crypto lawyer and founder of NeosLegal, told Cointelegraph.

“It brings protocols, DeFi platforms, middleware, and even infrastructure providers into scope if they enable activities such as payments, exchange, lending, custody, or investment services,” Heaver said.

According to the lawyer, industry projects building or operating in the UAE should treat this as a pivotal regulatory milestone and align their systems before the September 2026 transition deadline.

Issued in the Official Gazette and legally effective since Sept. 16, 2025, the UAE’s Federal Decree Law No. 6 is a central bank law that regulates financial institutions, insurance business as well as digital asset-related activities.

Its key provisions, Article 61 and Article 62, provide a list of activities that require a license from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), including crypto payments and digital stored value.

“Article 62 states that any person who carries on, offers, issues, or facilitates a licensed financial activity ‘through any means, medium, or technology’ falls under the regulatory perimeter of the CBUAE,” Heaver said.

In practice, this means DeFi projects can no longer avoid regulation by claiming they are “just code,” the lawyer said, adding that the argument of “decentralization” does not exempt a protocol from compliance.

Protocols that support stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), decentralized exchange (DEX) functions, bridges, or liquidity routing “may require a license,” Heaver said. The enforcement is already active, she added, with penalties for unlicensed activity including fines of up to 1 billion dirhams ($272.3 million) and potential criminal sanctions.

Source: CoinTelegraph