Kraken Parent Payward Says It Won Full VARA License in Dubai

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has received full market approval from Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority. It is the last stage of VARA's licensing process. The company says it can now operate as a regulated virtual asset service provider for retail, professional and institutional clients in the emirate.

For anyone holding crypto in the UAE, that is where it bites. From launch, clients there can trade spot and margin in dirham-denominated pairs. They can fund and withdraw directly in dirhams, through a locally regulated Payward subsidiary, with access to Kraken's global order books. It is a local booking path into the same liquidity, not a separate exchange.

Kraken has said it will start serving UAE clients in the coming weeks. It has not given a fixed date.

What the Full VARA License Actually Permits

Kraken's own notice names the licence category: "Broker-Dealer / Investment and Management," with the "full license reference upon final issuance." That authorises virtual asset services to retail and professional investors in Dubai, subject to VARA's framework and applicable conditions.

The notice also splits the two client groups in a way worth reading closely. "Services available to retail clients are limited to those expressly permitted for retail clients under VARA's retail-access rules and may differ from products and services available to professional clients."

So the full approval is not blanket permission for every product. Retail access depends on what VARA's retail rules allow, and the professional tier is a wider door.

Payward says it maintains segregated client asset arrangements and regulatory capital requirements as prescribed by VARA. In plain terms, customer assets are meant to sit apart from the firm's own balance sheet. The firm also has to hold capital against the business it runs.

Dirham Trading, Staking and Tokenized Equities at Launch

Kraken says UAE clients will get, from day one:

• Spot and margin trading in AED pairs, plus direct funding and withdrawal in dirhams.
• On-chain staking, xStocks tokenized equities and Krak for crypto transfers.
• OTC spot trading and access to Kraken Prime for institutional clients.

The company also said it will bring its Buy, Trade and Earn products to the UAE, offering spot trading and staking subject to regulatory approval. It plans to expand over time to derivatives, lending and new investment products for qualified clients.

Derivatives and new yield products are expected later in 2026 and into 2027, again subject to regulatory approval. Nothing in the announcement sets a date for either.

Dubai Adds to a Licence List of More Than 100

Payward holds more than 100 licences and registrations across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Dubai is an addition to that list rather than a first move abroad. The May preliminary approval let the company finish its operational set-up. Full approval is what lets it onboard clients.

"Dubai wrote a rulebook for crypto before most jurisdictions even acknowledged the asset class," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken. Sethi's claim is about the rulebook, not about what the licence delivers.

The approval lands alongside the parent company's other plumbing work. That includes around-the-clock settlement through SGB Net, and outreach to large financial firms over crypto liquidity. Dubai gives Payward a locally licensed entity to sell through. It also plans to offer its infrastructure to regional partners as embedded trading, extending beyond Kraken's own clients.

What the Approval Does Not Settle

The decision is not listed on VARA's own newsroom. No full-approval post has appeared on the Kraken blog. The UAE page still dates to the May preliminary authorisation and carries no licence number, only the placeholder "full license reference upon final issuance." The date of the decision also differs between accounts of it, Monday and Tuesday this week.

What to watch is concrete: whether VARA publishes the licence entry, whether Kraken sets a launch date and a UAE user target, and whether any derivatives product clears the regulator. Until the regulator lists it, the Dubai licence rests on the company's statement rather than a public licence record.