Kraken gets Dubai VARA license to offer UAE crypto trading

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Kraken gets Dubai VARA license to offer UAE crypto trading

May 22, 2026

DUBAI,— Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has received regulatory approval to operate in Dubai, giving it clearance to offer a broad range of digital asset services to traders across the United Arab Emirates, the company announced Thursday.

Parent company Payward was granted preliminary broker-dealer and investment management authorization from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, known as VARA.

The approval covers services for both retail and professional investors in the emirate.

Under the license, UAE clients will have access to spot and margin trading, over-the-counter services, staking, crypto transfers between users, and Kraken Prime, the exchange’s dedicated platform for institutional clients.

Accounts can be funded and withdrawn in UAE dirhams through Payward FZCO, a locally regulated subsidiary. Traders will connect to Kraken’s international order books covering markets in Europe, the United States, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Arjun Sethi, co-chief executive of both Payward and Kraken, credited Dubai’s early move to put written rules around crypto as the main reason serious money and liquidity had shifted to the UAE ahead of other markets.

He said operating under VARA meant Kraken would serve customers through a locally supervised unit rather than reaching them from outside the country.

Sethi noted that UAE customers would receive the same products, market depth, and asset coverage that Kraken provides in all its other operating markets worldwide.

The edge Dubai offered, he said, was a regulator physically present in the market and a rulebook that left little room for interpretation.

Kraken said it intends to broaden its Dubai product lineup over time, adding derivatives, lending facilities, and further investment options for eligible clients as the business grows, pending additional regulatory sign-off.

Dubai created VARA in 2022 to bring formal oversight to the emirate’s virtual asset sector, building one of the most structured crypto frameworks in the world.

Since then, the authority has licensed major global platforms including Binance, Crypto.com, and OKX, helping Dubai establish itself as the primary crypto regulatory center in the Middle East.

Other firms have recently navigated the same approval path. Ripple gained VARA authorization for its RLUSD stablecoin earlier this year.

Animoca Brands also secured a license during a period when the authority tightened its standards. VARA demonstrated its enforcement reach in March when it ordered KuCoin to immediately stop providing services to Dubai residents, citing the exchange’s lack of proper local authorization.

On the corporate side, Kraken filed last November for a U.S. initial public offering that remains pending. The filing followed a funding round that raised $800 million at a valuation of $20 billion.

Separately, Payward has applied for a national trust bank charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, extending its push into regulated financial infrastructure in the United States.

In February 2023, the exchange shut its Abu Dhabi office less than a year after setting up there, a company spokesperson confirmed at the time.

The pullback came as Kraken moved to streamline its global operations following the collapse of rival exchange FTX, which sent shockwaves across the digital assets industry and pushed several firms to reassess their regional footprints.

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the longest-running cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, serving millions of retail customers, professional traders, and institutions across more than 600 digital assets, traditional U.S. futures, stocks, and six national currencies.

Payward, its parent company, operates as a unified financial infrastructure platform behind Kraken and a broader set of products including NinjaTrader, Breakout, and CF Benchmarks, all built on a shared global trading architecture.

(With files from Kraken, decryptagent.com, businesswire.com, Reuters)