Kraken's parent Payward received Full Market Approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) today (Monday). Kraken plans to start serving clients in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the coming weeks, the company said.
The approval is the last stage of VARA's licensing process. It follows the preliminary authorization Payward FZCO received in May for a broker-dealer, investment and management license, which allowed the unit to build its local operations but not to onboard clients.
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The license covers retail, professional and institutional investors, so Kraken can now market its platform directly to Dubai's retail traders. VARA limits retail clients to services it expressly permits. Payward says it holds more than 100 licenses and registrations worldwide.
Late to a Crowded Register
Kraken enters a market where the largest offshore exchanges arrived years earlier. Crypto.com's Dubai entity secured a VARA license for exchange and broker-dealer services in November 2023.
Binance Dubai received its full license in April 2024 and began moving UAE users off its global platform that June. Bybit announced in October 2025 that it had obtained a full platform operator license from the UAE's federal Securities and Commodities Authority instead.
Dubai's regime licenses each activity separately, from brokerage and custody to lending and advisory work, with capital requirements set by activity, as FinanceMagnates.com noted in a May comparison of the US, EU, Singapore and Dubai crypto frameworks.
Dirham Accounts First, Derivatives Later
At launch, UAE clients will trade spot and margin on pairs quoted in dirhams and deposit and withdraw the local currency directly, Payward said.
Retail users will also get on-chain staking, transfers through the Krak app and xStocks, the tokenized equities whose backing assets passed $800 million in September.
Institutional clients gain OTC spot trading and access to Kraken Prime, which Kraken opened as a self-service platform for institutions in August.
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said UAE clients would get "the same order book and multi-asset coverage we run in every other market."
Crypto derivatives and more yield products are expected later in 2026 and into 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Under VARA's exchange rulebook, updated in March, a licensed platform needs the regulator's explicit approval before it lists futures, options or perpetual contracts.
Payward also plans to offer its trading infrastructure to regional firms as an embedded service.
Expansion While Volumes Fall
The Gulf launch lands in a weaker year for crypto trading volumes. Payward's adjusted revenue rose 17% year over year to $508 million in the second quarter, while platform transaction volume fell 13% from the first quarter to $310 billion.
Payward, which filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2025, does not plan to list before the second quarter of 2027, CoinDesk reported in September, citing people familiar with the matter.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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