Digital asset exchange Fasset has finally launched its app in the UAE five months after it secured Dubai’s first Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license.
The release of the app in the UAE follows its launch in Indonesia last year.
With the VASP license, granted by the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, Fasset is permitted to carry out virtual asset brokerage services out of Dubai for retail and institutional customers globally. Its platform facilitates the buying, selling and swapping of digital and tokenized real-world assets in the user’s preferred currencies including cryptocurrencies, stablecoins as well as bundles.
“UAE is experiencing a surge in digital asset investment as the government promotes innovation and entrepreneurship in the country,” observed Fasset CEO Mohammad Raafi Hossain. “Our goal is to empower people to have universal access to financial services, so they have more opportunities to build and manage their wealth.”
Backed by Liberty City Ventures, Fasset – which has raised US$26.7 million in funding – intends to offer other asset classes including tokenized real estate and Sukuk. It is understood that the platform has ambitions to expand its service offerings to include financing and remittance.
Fasset last year established a Shariah spin-off, Fasset Islamic, a Halal investing app offering exposure to Halal digital assets and real-world assets such as gold. It intends to include Halal staking and Shariah compliant stocks into its portfolio.
Regional expansion and beyond
Fasset now has a firm foothold in the UAE and Indonesia and plans to use these two markets as gateways into the respective regions.
So far, the Indonesian operation seems to be on a positive trajectory. In the first week of its launch in the world’s most populous Muslim country, the app generated a waitlist of over a million. It has also partnered with telco provider Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison to launch an embedded digital asset exchange in its app, making it available to over 100 million users in Indonesia. Fasset has also collaborated with Mastercard to offer a crypto card in the Southeast Asian nation.