Kraken Clears Final Dubai Licensing Step for UAE Market Entry
Regulation & Gov ·
Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority has granted Kraken's parent company Payward full market approval, opening the door to regulated crypto services across the UAE.
The sign-off lets Payward operate as a licensed virtual asset service provider in Dubai, covering retail, professional, and institutional customers, according to CryptoPotato. At launch, UAE users will get spot and margin trading quoted in dirhams, along with direct dirham deposits and withdrawals, removing the need to route funds through other currencies. The rollout also includes on-chain staking, the xStocks product, and Krak, Kraken's transfer service, while institutional clients gain access to OTC spot trading and Kraken Prime.
This approval marks the closing phase of VARA's licensing track, following a preliminary approval issued to Payward earlier in the year that allowed the company to finish building out its operations ahead of onboarding customers. The broader broker-dealer and investment-services licence covering retail, qualified, and institutional clients was separately detailed by defiprime.com, and the development was also noted by wublockchain.xyz. Payward now holds more than 100 licenses and registrations globally, spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.
Additional products are planned further out, including crypto derivatives and expanded yield offerings expected to arrive later in 2026 and into 2027, contingent on further regulatory clearance. Payward also intends to extend its trading infrastructure to regional partners under an embedded trading-as-a-service arrangement.
The UAE move comes after a string of capital commitments tied to Kraken this year: a $200M investment from Deutsche Börse in April, a lending partnership with Maple in June, and a $100M investment from Nasdaq in September that valued Payward at $21 billion. Nasdaq and Kraken are also working on tokenized stocks, targeting a launch in the second quarter of 2027.
Six distinct sources have covered the VARA approval, consistently describing it as the final stage of the licensing process rather than a preliminary step. What remains unclear is the exact timeline for onboarding UAE customers, and whether the derivatives and expanded yield products slated for 2026–2027 will secure the additional regulatory sign-off they depend on.