Kraken gains Dubai VARA approval, targets institutional flows

On May 21, Kraken’s local entity received preliminary approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to operate under the emirate’s virtual assets framework. The clearance covers spot and margin trading, over-the-counter trading, staking and Kraken Prime for qualified institutional clients.

The authorization allows Kraken to provide trading and custody services in Dubai. The company said AED funding is planned later in 2026 to enable dirham deposits and a local on-ramp into Kraken’s global order books.

Kraken previously operated in the UAE and held a license in Abu Dhabi’s ADGM in 2022; that approval was outside VARA’s jurisdiction. The new routing through Dubai places Kraken under VARA oversight after the exchange exited the UAE around 2024.

VARA has issued approvals to roughly 49 firms across exchanges, brokerages and custodians. Binance and OKX already hold Dubai permissions, and Crypto.com is in a preparatory licensing phase.

Kraken Prime offers institutional clients a single account for trading, custody and OTC liquidity. The product will compete for the same institutional flows targeted by Binance Institutional, OKX Liquid Marketplace and Crypto.com’s institutional desk.

VARA has tightened oversight of existing operators in recent months. Exchanges must complete local compliance, custody and operational requirements before onboarding institutional counterparties at scale. How quickly Kraken converts preliminary clearance into a full operational license will affect when it can expand services and accept UAE institutional clients.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, wrote in the company announcement, “Dubai wrote a rulebook for crypto before most jurisdictions even acknowledged the asset class. That clarity is why real liquidity and institutional capital now sit in the UAE.”