Kraken’s parent company Payward has been fully licensed to offer crypto services in Dubai and will open its platform up to customers in the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks, according to an October 12, 2026, announcement.
The company said it had received approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to operate as a retail, professional and institutional service provider to customers who will be able to access spot and margin trading, on-chain staking and tokenized stocks, but crypto derivatives will not be available at launch.
Kraken is coming to Dubai 🇦🇪🐙
@Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has received Full Market Approval from @VARADubai.
In the coming weeks, you’ll be able to fund in dirhams, trade AED pairs, and stake on-chain with Kraken.
Learn more: https://t.co/wkWkgcHXOq
— Kraken (@krakenfx) October 13, 2026
The approval, known as Full Market Approval, marks the end of the licensing process of VARA, which approved a Preliminary Approval in May 21, allowing Payward the time to prepare its operations before starting to onboard customers.
According to the announcement, UAE customers will be able to trade crypto pairs denominated in UAE dirhams with the ability to fund and withdraw in local currency, as per eligibility criteria, and use Krak, Kraken’s app for sending crypto, as well as xStocks, a service that provides tokenized versions of listed shares.
Institutional customers will also have access to over-the-counter spot trading and Kraken Prime, the company’s prime brokerage service, while Payward plans to open up its trading infrastructure to other businesses in the region as a way for partners to offer trading services to their clients, using Kraken’s trading technology.
Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi said UAE customers will have the same order book as those in other regions and access to a similar set of assets. The company has said it intends to launch crypto derivatives and yield products later this year and first half of 2027, subject to any approvals.
Derivatives are financial instruments whose value is determined by an underlying asset, such as Bitcoin or Ether, and yield products seek to generate returns from digital assets, but the products’ availability and risks depend on the product.
Dubai has been working on virtual asset rules, with VARA overseeing virtual asset business activity across the emirate, apart from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) that has its own regulator, while the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a financial free zone in Abu Dhabi, also has a separate regulator.
Payward said it holds more than 100 licences and registrations across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, while the UAE launch is part of its expansion plans to bring its regulated services to key financial centres.
In recent weeks, Payward has announced a collaboration with Singapore Gulf Bank to provide round-the-clock institutional settlement, and separately discussed plans to launch on-chain perpetual futures to US customers.
The Dubai approval gives Kraken the opportunity to tap into a larger customer base in the Gulf region, but what customers will be able to access at launch time will be constrained by the licence conditions, with other products needing any required regulatory approvals.
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