Every commercial ship in service today started as a transaction. At some point, a buyer and a seller agreed on a price, signed a contract, transferred funds, and handed over an asset worth anywhere from a few million to several hundred million dollars. The mechanism that makes this happen at scale is the ship sale and purchase market, a global, broker-mediated marketplace where secondhand tonnage trades continuously. This market sits at the heart of how the global fleet renews itself. It is...

Ships are some of the most valuable operating assets in the global economy. They are expensive to build, operate for decades, and play a central role in global trade. At the same time, ship ownership has traditionally been complex. High capital requirements, specialized knowledge, and private ownership structures have historically limited participation to institutions, large family offices, and industry insiders. Shipfinex has received In-Principle Approval (IPA) from Dubai’s Virtual Assets...

Shipfinex has received In‑Principle Approval (IPA) from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for a VASP license. This approval marks a significant regulatory milestone and places Shipfinex within VARA’s formal licensing framework for virtual asset activities related to maritime assets. An In‑Principle Approval is a provisional regulatory status. It confirms that VARA has assessed Shipfinex’s operating model, governance approach, and compliance intent, and has permitted the...