Dubai, May 21, 2026, 22:06 (GST)
Payward, the parent of Kraken, has secured preliminary approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority for a broker-dealer, investment and management licence, moving the U.S.-founded crypto exchange closer to a fuller UAE launch.
The timing matters because Dubai has become a crowded licensing ground for large digital-asset firms. Binance, OKX and Crypto.com already hold active VARA licences, giving Kraken a late but still serious route into a market where local regulatory cover and dirham access can decide who wins institutional flow.
Kraken said UAE clients would be able to fund and withdraw in dirhams, trade through its global order books and access services including spot trading, margin trading, over-the-counter trading, staking and Kraken Prime for institutional clients. Spot trading means buying or selling a token for near-immediate delivery; OTC trading is privately negotiated dealing, often used for larger orders.
“Dubai wrote a rulebook for crypto before most jurisdictions even acknowledged the asset class,” Arjun Sethi, co-chief executive of Payward and Kraken, said in the company statement. “That clarity is why real liquidity and institutional capital now sit in the UAE.” Business Wire
Sethi said operating under VARA would put Kraken “inside that perimeter,” serving clients through a local supervised entity rather than offshore. He added that UAE clients would get “the same order book, the same balance sheet, and the same multi-asset coverage” used in other markets. Kraken Blog
The Dubai approval fits Payward’s broader push to build regulated local operations instead of relying only on cross-border access. Kraken was valued at $20 billion in a November funding round that raised $800 million, with Jane Street, HSG, Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management and Tribe Capital among investors in the primary tranche and Citadel Securities adding $200 million.
But the licence path is not risk-free. VARA says an in-principle approval is a conditional step and that applicants holding one may not begin virtual-asset activities or serve clients until they receive a full VASP licence; Kraken also said its Buy, Trade and Earn products would be introduced subject to regulatory approval.
A VASP, or Virtual Asset Service Provider, is a regulated business allowed to offer crypto-related services under defined rules. Payward said its Dubai unit, Payward FZCO, is licensed by VARA under broker-dealer and investment-management categories, with the full licence reference to follow upon final issuance; retail services will be limited by VARA’s retail-access rules.
VARA’s public register listed 49 providers and showed active licences for several of Kraken’s likely competitors, including Binance FZE, OKX Middle East Fintech FZE, Foris DAX Middle East FZE and Deribit FZE. The regulator says it covers virtual assets across Dubai’s mainland and free zones, except the Dubai International Financial Centre.
For Kraken, the practical test will be less about the headline approval and more about execution: when dirham rails open, which products go live, and whether its global liquidity can pull UAE traders away from incumbents already operating under Dubai’s rulebook.
