Platforms · Software · Providers · Markets
Payward, Kraken's parent, received Full Market Approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) on Monday, 12 October 2026. Kraken says it expects to begin serving clients in the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks.
The decision completes the licensing process after Payward FZCO obtained preliminary authorisation in May for broker-dealer, investment and management activities. That permission let it establish local operations, but not take on customers. The final approval covers retail traders alongside professional and institutional clients; VARA restricts retail access to services it specifically allows. Payward says it has more than 100 licences and registrations globally.
At launch, Payward says accounts will support spot and margin markets quoted in dirhams, with deposits and withdrawals in the local currency. Retail users are also due on-chain staking, transfers via the Krak app and xStocks, tokenised shares whose backing assets exceeded $800 million in September. Institutions will have OTC spot and Kraken Prime, the self-service institutional platform Kraken opened in August. Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said clients would have the order book and multi-asset range used in its other markets. Derivatives and additional yield products are planned for later in 2026 and into 2027, subject to regulatory approval. VARA's exchange rulebook, updated in March, requires specific permission for futures, options and perpetual contracts. Payward also intends to supply its trading infrastructure to regional firms as an embedded service.
Kraken joins Dubai after Crypto.com's Dubai entity secured VARA exchange and broker-dealer permissions in November 2023; Binance Dubai obtained a full licence in April 2024 and began shifting UAE users away from its global platform that June. Bybit said in October 2025 it had received a full platform operator licence from the UAE's federal Securities and Commodities Authority. Dubai grants permissions by activity and sets capital requirements accordingly. A May comparison of the framework with those in the US, EU and Singapore was published by Finance Magnates. CoinDesk reported in September, citing people familiar with the matter, that Payward plans no listing before the second quarter of 2027, following its confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2025.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Payward licences and registrations | More than 100 worldwide |
| XStocks backing assets | More than $800 million in September |
| Adjusted revenue | $508 million in the second quarter, up 17% year over year |
| Platform transaction volume | $310 billion in the second quarter, down 13% from the first quarter |
| Earliest planned listing | Not before the second quarter of 2027 |
Where this lands in the stack
The launch puts dirham funding and trading into scope for Kraken's UAE operations. Operators will need to establish how local-currency deposits and withdrawals reconcile against spot and margin positions, and how account permissions map to retail, professional and institutional services. The source does not specify the payment or ledger arrangements, so those are points to confirm before launch.
Retail access is bounded by VARA's permitted services, while futures, options and perpetual contracts require further explicit approval. Firms evaluating the embedded infrastructure offer should establish which components Payward plans to provide and how those services will fit with their existing execution, risk and reporting systems. The source gives no integration timetable or operating costs.
