Kraken parent wins full Dubai approval, targets UAE launch in weeks

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has received Full Market Approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, the final stage of the emirate's licensing process. Kraken plans to start serving clients in the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks, Fintech News UAE reported on Oct. 12.

The approval lets Payward operate as a regulated virtual asset service provider for retail, professional, and institutional investors in Dubai. CryptoTicker wrote on Oct. 12 that VARA issued Payward FZCO licence VL/26/10/002 on Oct. 6, listed as active, with permission to serve institutional, qualified, and retail investors. The retail clause matters most, since it lets Kraken market its platform directly to Dubai's retail traders.

At launch, clients in the UAE will get spot and margin trading in dirham-denominated pairs, with deposits and withdrawals directly in dirhams. The lineup also includes on-chain staking, xStocks tokenized US-listed equities, and the Krak app for crypto transfers. Institutional clients get over-the-counter spot trading and Kraken Prime, the exchange's prime brokerage service.

More products sit further out. Crypto derivatives and additional yield offerings are expected later in 2026 and into 2027, subject to regulatory approval, and Payward also intends to offer its infrastructure to regional partners as embedded trading, the report said.

The October approval follows preliminary approval granted in May, which let the company finish its operating setup before taking on clients. Kraken described that May step on its company blog, where it listed spot, margin, over-the-counter trading, staking, Krak transfers, and Kraken Prime among the services covered, plus access to its global order books and dirham funding through a locally regulated Payward subsidiary.

One structural detail shapes how the Dubai business will run. VARA's register lists Payward FZCO for broker-dealer and management and investment services, without the exchange-services category held by some rivals, which fits a model where the Dubai entity routes client orders to Kraken's global books rather than running a local order book. In practice, UAE traders use the same liquidity as Kraken clients elsewhere, CryptoTicker noted.

Arjun Sethi, co-chief executive of Payward and Kraken, said UAE clients get the same order book and multi-asset coverage the company runs in every other market, now inside a clear local rulebook. Dubai wrote crypto rules before most jurisdictions took the asset class seriously, he said in May, and that clarity is why liquidity and institutional money now sit in the UAE.

Kraken arrives in Dubai after most of its large rivals. Binance's local entity already holds a full VASP licence, OKX operates with a full VARA licence and direct dirham deposits, Crypto.com holds a VARA licence, and Bybit has run its global headquarters from Dubai since 2022, according to CryptoTicker. The VARA public register now lists 58 licensed providers, up from 49 in May.

For retail traders the practical change is direct dirham access. Funding and withdrawals run in AED rather than through dollar or stablecoin ramps, and the retail clause in the licence lets Kraken market to everyday traders instead of serving only professionals. Institutional desks keep over-the-counter spot trading and Kraken Prime. Later stages, including derivatives and new yield products, need separate regulatory sign-off under a VARA exchange rulebook revised in March. The company maintains segregated client asset arrangements and regulatory capital levels as prescribed by VARA, according to the terms published with its May announcement.

The company is no stranger to the Emirates. Kraken secured approval to operate from Abu Dhabi's ADGM financial free zone in 2022, outside VARA's Dubai jurisdiction, but wound that down in 2023. The approvals come from different authorities, yet the outcome is the same dirham product returning under Dubai's regulator. The next test is derivatives: under VARA's exchange rulebook, updated in March, a licensed platform needs explicit approval before listing futures, options, or perpetual contracts.