Kraken’s parent company, Payward, has a full licence from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), clearing the US crypto exchange to start serving clients in the UAE. The licence was issued on 6 October, according to VARA’s public register, six days before Kraken announced it on 12 October.
The register lists Payward FZCO under licence VL/26/10/002, for broker-dealer services and management and investment services. It allows the firm to serve retail, qualified and institutional investors. The entry also carries a registration number with the UAE’s federal Capital Market Authority, and gives a principal place of business in the DMCC free zone.
Payward received preliminary approval from VARA on 21 May, which let it prepare operations in Dubai but not onboard clients. The full licence is the final stage of VARA’s process.
Dirham pairs first, derivatives later
Kraken said, ‘it plans to start serving UAE clients in the coming weeks’. At launch it will offer spot and margin trading in dirham pairs, dirham deposits and withdrawals, on-chain staking, tokenised US stocks and its Krak transfer app. Institutional clients get over-the-counter trading and its Kraken Prime service.
Crypto derivatives and more yield products are planned for late 2026 and 2027, subject to further regulatory approval. Payward also wants to offer its trading infrastructure to regional firms to embed in their own products.
Also, read Stablecoin Payments Firm Noah Extends Seed Round to $38 Million and Plans New York Office
Arjun Sethi, co-chief executive of Payward and Kraken, said,
“From launch UAE clients get the same order book and multi-asset coverage we run in every other market,”
When the preliminary approval came in May, Sethi said:
“Dubai wrote a rulebook for crypto before most jurisdictions even acknowledged the asset class.”
What dirham trading means for users
A dirham pair prices a cryptocurrency directly in UAE dirhams, such as bitcoin against the dirham, rather than against the US dollar or a dollar stablecoin. A buyer in the UAE can pay in dirhams and see the price in dirhams, without first converting to dollars.
The deposits and withdrawals matter as much as the pairs. Kraken says UAE clients will be able to fund their accounts and cash out directly in dirhams. Without that, a local user typically sends dirhams from a bank, has them converted to dollars somewhere along the way, and pays a spread on each conversion in and out.
The difference in exchange-rate risk is small, because the dirham is pegged to the US dollar at 3.6725, a rate the Central Bank of the UAE maintains. The saving is mainly in conversion costs and in how quickly money reaches the exchange.
Margin trading lets a client borrow against their account to take a bigger position than their cash would cover, which magnifies both gains and losses. Kraken hasn’t said what leverage it will offer UAE retail clients or what limits VARA has set for it.
Joining Binance and Crypto.com
Kraken arrives later than some rivals. Crypto.com’s Dubai entity received a VARA licence in November 2023, and Binance’s Dubai business got its full licence in April 2024, according to Finance Magnates. Bybit took a different route, announcing a licence from the UAE’s federal securities regulator rather than VARA in October 2025. Revolut received VARA in-principle approval in July.
Kraken also holds a Financial Services Permission from Abu Dhabi Global Market, Abu Dhabi’s separate financial centre, dating from 2022, according to Fintech News Middle East.
Payward says it holds more than 100 licences and registrations worldwide. It filed confidentially for a US listing in November 2025, according to CoinDesk reporting cited by Finance Magnates.
Kraken hasn’t given a launch date, said how much dirham liquidity it expects, or named a local banking partner for dirham deposits and withdrawals.
