The Capital Market Authority, Sultanate of Oman (CMA), which regulates and develops Oman's financial markets for the capital market and insurance sectors, had earlier announced its plans to establish the new regulatory framework for Virtual Assets (VA) and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP). This move highlights the CMA's proactive approach to develop the digital assets and fintech industry in Oman.

The CMA is currently in the process of drafting the comprehensive and facilitative regulatory framework, which will include a new regulation to cover all virtual assets activities, a licensing framework for all VASP categories and a supervisory framework to identify, assess, and mitigate ongoing risks. This is being done after the CMA had made an extensive global analysis and benchmarking with other jurisdictions.

The proposed new regulatory framework is envisaged to cover activities such as crypto assets, tokens, crypto exchanges, and initial coin offerings, among others.

As such, the CMA would like to invite the public and all relevant stakeholders, including VASPs, financial institutions, academics, legal firms, consumer groups and other businesses that may be impacted by the VA and VASP frameworks, to provide their views and comments to the public consultation paper.

Kindly send your responses to the public consultation paper within three (3) weeks, by or before 17 August 2023.

Responses to the public consultation paper can be made electronically via email to: kemal.rizadi@cma.gov.om.

The public consultation paper may be downloaded from the CMA’s website at 

https://cma.gov.om/Home/EParticipation/LegislationDrafts