Kraken wins Dubai approval for regulated UAE crypto route

Kraken won preliminary approval from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, giving the exchange a regulated route into a market whose crypto rulebook has been in place since 2022. The authorization lets Kraken parent Payward prepare a UAE launch for spot, margin, over-the-counter and staking services while also extending Kraken Prime to eligible local clients. For an exchange still dealing with uneven rules in the US and Europe, Dubai gives it another regulated foothold.

Dubai is one of the few jurisdictions where large exchanges can pursue multiple crypto products under a single supervisor. BeInCrypto’s competitive overview places Kraken alongside Binance, OKX and Crypto.com in the city’s regulated market. That leaves the UAE competing for institutional and high-touch trading flows rather than simply marketing itself as crypto-friendly. Middle East allocators have become more important as exchanges look for growth outside Washington and Brussels, and several venues are now chasing the same pool of OTC, treasury and wealthy-client business.

Kraken executives have cast the authorization as more than a retail rollout. The company said UAE clients will be able to reach the same global liquidity pool it runs elsewhere rather than a ring-fenced local venue with a thinner book. In remarks carried by Reuters and Zawya, co-Chief Executive Officer Arjun Sethi said the aim was to give regional clients the same balance sheet and multi-asset coverage the group provides in other markets.

“Clients in the UAE get the same order book, the same balance sheet, and the same multi-asset coverage we run in every other market.”
— Arjun Sethi, Reuters via TradingView/Zawya

Decrypt also reported that Kraken plans to support dirham-denominated funding. Local currency rails narrow the gap between regional bank accounts and the exchange’s global order book. For family offices and proprietary desks, that can make the venue easier to use for global crypto execution.

Why Dubai fits Kraken

VARA, created in 2022, has spent the intervening years building a licensing stack for brokers, investment managers and other virtual-asset businesses. Specialist oversight of that kind has been harder to find in larger western markets, where rule-writing has often lagged enforcement. Kraken’s authorization does not settle its position in those jurisdictions, but it does give the company a place to expand under clearer parameters and a supervisor built specifically for the asset class.

The service list points to institutions as much as retail. Spot, margin, OTC, staking and Prime access give funds, market makers and larger family offices execution, financing and custody-adjacent services under one regulated umbrella. Dubai is offering a place to put that infrastructure.

Competition for Gulf flows

Kraken is not arriving early. The Block’s report on the authorization said the approval places Payward inside VARA’s supervisory perimeter in Dubai, and rivals have already spent time building local positions. A later entrant can still win share if it brings deep liquidity and broad products, but the commercial test is now real. Dubai’s regulated market is moving from first-mover branding to day-to-day competition for client flows.

The Block reported earlier this month that Payward generated $507 million in first-quarter 2026 adjusted revenue after raising $800 million at a $20 billion valuation last November. Those figures do not make the case for Dubai on their own, but they suggest Kraken can add local compliance staff, institutional sales coverage and operational depth instead of treating the UAE as a symbolic outpost.

Kraken’s Dubai license adds another supervised venue in the Gulf as exchanges diversify geographic risk away from the US and Europe. If more of that infrastructure settles in the UAE, the region will influence not only local trading volumes but also where institutional crypto liquidity is routed and under whose rules it grows.