Uzbek Crypto Entrepreneur Arut Nazaryan Gets 2 Years in UAE Prison Over Unlicensed Bistox Exchange

Arut Nazaryan, also known as the performer Arut, has been sentenced in the United Arab Emirates to 2 years in prison for running his crypto exchange Bistox without the required license. For high-risk payment and crypto operators, the case is a reminder that licensing gaps do not stay a theoretical problem for long when the regulator decides to make an example.

1. The court also fined Nazaryan 200 million dirhams, which the verdict says equals Bistox’s total trading volume. After he is released, he will not be allowed to leave the UAE until he repays the debt to the state.
2. Before the sentencing, Nazaryan had already spent 5 months in a UAE prison. Prosecutors had asked for a 6-year sentence, but his lawyers challenged the verdict and lost.
3. Nazaryan moved to Dubai from Uzbekistan 12 years ago. He first worked as a consultant, then began investing in digital currencies, saying he put $100 into bitcoin on a friend’s advice.
4. He later founded the Morningstar Ventures investment fund and the Bistox crypto exchange, and started issuing the BSX token. In 2021, users began complaining that they could not withdraw funds from the platform.
5. Customers also noted that the project’s registration details were not publicly available, which triggered accusations of a scam. In 2022, Nazaryan went bankrupt and shut down Bistox, later admitting in a video message that he had tried to project wealth to avoid losing his projects and his “billionaire reputation.”

For PSPs, acquirers, and banking partners, the useful detail here is not the celebrity angle. It is the enforcement pattern: unlicensed crypto activity, withdrawal complaints, missing registration data, platform shutdown, and then criminal exposure plus a financial penalty tied to trading volume. That sequence is the part worth underwriting against.