Kraken Lands Full Dubai Licence: Dirham Trading Goes Live for UAE Crypto Investors

Kraken is officially in Dubai. Kraken’s parent Payward received Full Market Approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) on Monday, and the exchange plans to start serving clients in the UAE in the coming weeks. The approval follows the preliminary approval Payward received in May.

What does the Kraken Dubai licence cover?

VARA issued Payward FZCO VASP licence VL/26/10/002 on October 6, 2026, listed as active and permitting the entity to serve institutional, qualified and retail investors. That retail clause is the important part: Kraken can now market its platform directly to Dubai’s retail traders.

On the product side, Kraken plans AED-denominated spot and margin trading, staking, and tokenized equities for UAE clients, with direct deposit and withdrawal capabilities launching in the coming weeks. Crypto derivatives and additional yield products are planned for 2026 to 2027, subject to approval.

One structural detail worth knowing: VARA’s register lists Payward FZCO for broker-dealer and management and investment services, without the exchange services category held by Binance, OKX or Flipster. That fits a model where the Dubai entity passes client orders to Kraken’s global books instead of running a local order book of its own. In practice, UAE traders tap the same liquidity as everyone else on Kraken.

Why is Kraken arriving in Dubai so late?

Kraken arrives in Dubai after most of its global peers. Binance’s local entity already holds a full VASP licence, OKX operates with a full VARA licence and direct AED deposits, Crypto.com holds a VARA licence, and Bybit has run its global headquarters from Dubai since 2022.

Kraken did have a UAE presence before. It 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 result is the same dirham product coming back, this time under Dubai’s regulator.

What does this mean for Dubai as a crypto hub?

Dubai keeps stacking licences. The VARA public register now lists 58 licensed providers, up from 49 in May. Kraken’s arrival puts another top-tier Western exchange inside VARA’s perimeter, and sets up a direct fight with Binance and OKX for retail dirham flows. The next test is derivatives: 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.