Crypto Exchange Kraken Expands Into UAE

Major U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken is expanding into the Middle East and will open its regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi after getting a full license to operate a regulated trading platform in the UAE, CNBC reported.
“We’re incredibly excited to be able to set up our operations right in the ADGM [Abu Dhabi Global Market] itself to operate a virtual asset platform that finally offers Dirham pairs for investors in the region,” Curtis Ting, Kraken’s managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy.
After receiving regulatory permission from the ADGM and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority for its local launch, Kraken will become the first cryptocurrency exchange to provide direct funding and trading in UAE dirhams against bitcoin, ether, and a variety of other virtual assets.
The UAE exchanges $25 billion in cryptocurrencies each year. According to Chainalysis statistics collected between July 2020 and June 2021, it ranks third in the region in terms of volume, trailing Lebanon (~$26 billion) and Turkey ($132.4 billion).