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Robinhood Markets said on 22 October 2026 that the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) had approved it to offer its investing app in the Middle East. The US broker intends to start in 2027, with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) serving as its new regional headquarters.
The authorisation defines product scope
Robinhood said the permission allows it to provide trading and custody across 10 asset classes permitted by the DFSA. Equities, crypto, exchange-traded funds and investment tokens are among the categories covered.
Salah Kaddoura, senior executive officer and president of Robinhood MENA, is to lead the local team. DFSA figures collected by FM Intelligence show the DIFC had 72 authorised brokerage firms on 31 March 2026, compared with 49 in 2022.
Regional expansion adds competitive context
The Dubai move follows Robinhood's April appointment of Singapore as its Asia-Pacific headquarters, after in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). That clearance is not yet a licence.
In June, Robinhood completed its WonderFi acquisition, adding Canada's Bitbuy and Coinsquare crypto exchanges. The company said at the time that its funded customer base beyond the US exceeded 1 million. Robinhood already offers investment tokens outside the US, and said trading in its stock tokens reached $15 billion during the blockchain's first 100 days, based on figures it published this month.
Other firms have established positions across the region. EToro secured Abu Dhabi authorisation in November 2023 for dealing in securities, derivatives and crypto assets. Interactive Brokers established a DIFC presence in 2024; last December it introduced trading in shares listed in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Baraka, headquartered in the DIFC, started in September to give clients access to Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange shares, funded in dirhams, as well as US equities. Revolut received in-principle approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in July for broker-dealer and exchange services, pending final approval. XTB advanced to Category 1 and 2 licences from the Capital Market Authority (CMA), whose framework permits marketing to retail clients across the seven emirates. FM Intelligence's heat map put Middle East and North Africa at 4.1% of organic visits to retail FX and CFD broker sites in the third quarter of 2026, against 42% for Europe. The competitor and traffic figures were reported by Finance Magnates.
What an operations team should check
Teams assessing the competitive effect should map which product categories would require changes to their instrument master, entitlement model and post-trade controls. The announcement does not specify Robinhood's execution venues, custody arrangements, settlement design or local reporting obligations. Those details would determine where connectivity, reconciliation and compliance work sits.
Operations and risk leads should establish whether the 10 asset classes will launch together, how investment tokens will appear in statements and surveillance, and which local records need to be retained. The announcement gives no implementation detail on those points, so they remain questions for firms assessing the 2027 launch.
