Dubai’s VARA Partners With peaq to Regulate the Machine Economy

The MoU represents shared devotion to reconciling regulation and innovation in the most forward-thinking digital economy in the world. By uniting VARA's policy expertise with peaq's on-chain infrastructure, the two enter into an agreement to create the foundation for a compliant environment where machines may own wallets, transfer value, and act as participants in decentralized ecosystems subject to moderation by compliance and transparency.

According to the announcement, Dubai has launched peaq's Machine Economy Free Zone (MEFZ) in official capacity as a hub for projects that integrate robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain technology. The MEFZ will serve as a sandbox for companies building applications on the Machine Economy, offering guidance on compliance, licensing, and the implementation of VARA's rulebooks for machine-based revenue models. This action is meant to facilitate the growth of projects bringing physical devices to digital ledgers in a safe and Dubai virtual asset compliant manner.

As stipulated in the MoU, peaq will work with VARA to offer insight into technical and operational realities of tokenized machines, decentralized infrastructure, and real-world asset interconnectivity. The blockchain firm will also assist in shaping policy discourse via research and evidence sharing that supports evidence-based regulation. VARA will, in return, create channels for compliant Machine Economy initiatives to engage with its model of licensing, paving the way for practical use of Web3 innovation under regulatory frameworks.

As outlined in the statement, this collaboration is focused on establishing "tangible, regulatory clarity" for a new class of economic agents, autonomous machines that can facilitate value transacting. It broaches subjects such as decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), on-chain robotics, and machine tokenization as productive assets. These fields are collectively at the center of peaq’s ecosystem, which focuses on enabling vehicles, drones, robots, and devices to exchange value directly and operate within decentralized business models.

Matthew White, CEO of VARA, emphasized that the new partnership reflects Dubai’s ongoing mission to remain at the forefront of digital innovation. He stated, “Dubai is committed to shaping the future of the digital economy by embracing emerging frontiers like the Machine Economy. Through this MoU with peaq, we are laying the groundwork for regulatory clarity in areas such as on-chain robotics, DePIN, and tokenized machines. By combining innovation with responsible oversight, we aim to position Dubai as the global benchmark for the safe and sustainable growth of this next generation asset class.”

Max Thake, co-founder of peaq, highlighted that the collaboration aligns with the UAE’s leadership in technological advancement and regulatory foresight. He remarked, “The UAE is one of the world’s leading hubs for innovation in the fields of Web3 and applied robotics. This perfectly positions it to blaze the trail in machine tokenization, piloting this model and setting the benchmark and template for the rest of the world to follow. This MoU represents an important commitment from both parties to bring the Machine Economy to life in a compliant way and enable people to participate, build and benefit from an entirely new economic sector.”

Through the MEFZ, VARA and peaq will enable more and more builders to build decentralized machine networks. The Free Zone will include education in courses, open workshops, and research projects that work towards aligning technical standards with regulatory expectations. Startups will be able to test machine-based token models in a supervised fashion, with VARA monitoring consumer protection, anti-money-laundering compliance, and responsible use of automation.

Other than governance, the MoU also envisions a data-sharing regime by which anonymized economic data from peaq's network can be utilized to inform VARA's future policy design. By analyzing live activity on machine networks, regulators will be better placed to understand how autonomous devices generate, transfer, and store value on-chain, a stepping stone to crafting effective regulation. This model can be a global standard in applying data to regulate decentralized economies.

The collaboration also positions Dubai at the vanguard of jurisdictions to oversee tokenized real-world assets. Most of the existing regulations in the world today are focused on human parties and digital tokens, but the move by VARA into machine economies sets the stage for Web3's next horizon: devices that are legally and independently able to engage in trade. The forward-looking regulation embodied in this MoU would avert abuse while accelerating legitimate innovation across sectors from mobility and logistics to renewable energy and cities infrastructure.

For peaq, the partnership furthers its vision of building an open and inclusive ecosystem in which machines and human beings collaborate through clear, decentralized systems. The company has been at the forefront of the Machine Economy revolution, constructing infrastructure that allows devices to have digital identities, store wallets, and get tokens by doing useful work. VARA's approval basically brings such applications into the arena of regulated business, acting as a way to ensure the integrity and stability of the ecosystem as it grows.

The agreement arrives as governments everywhere want to define their place in regulating blockchain technologies. By making investments directly within a Layer-1 network rather than merely issuing guidelines remotely, Dubai is presenting a cooperative model that could set the model for how innovators and regulators interact elsewhere. Instead of placing technology on the outside as a threat, VARA is incorporating itself into the technological infrastructure to inform regulations from within.

The two institutions have announced that their collaboration will continue past the initial MoU, evolving into sustained cooperation through pilot initiatives, developer engagement, and formal studies. The shared objective is to establish an environment where machines participate in the economy responsibly, transparently, and within the purview of ethical oversight, ensuring that technological progress works for the public benefit and sustainable development.

The peaq–VARA agreement therefore stands as a milestone in the maturation of Web3 governance. It signals that Dubai’s regulatory leadership extends not only to digital assets but also to the broader convergence of blockchain, automation, and artificial intelligence, areas that together define the infrastructure of tomorrow’s digital economy.