Payward receives preliminary VARA approval
21 May 2026 UAE
Image: Sergii_Figurnyi/stock.adobe.com
Payward, a unified financial infrastructure platform and Kraken’s parent company, has received preliminary approval for a broker-dealer, investment, and management licence from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).
The licensing will allow Kraken to offer spot, margin, OTC trading, staking, and Kraken Prime, its institutional prime brokerage platform, to clients throughout the region, subject to regulatory approval.
Kraken also plans to expand its Dubai offering by introducing derivatives, lending, and new investment products to eligible clients.
The VARA authorisation, Payward says, is part of its broader growth strategy to establish “regulated, on-the-ground operations in key financial centres”.
Commenting on the approval, Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, says that, by operating under VARA, they are “serving clients through a local, supervised entity rather than from offshore” and that the regulatory body’s framework is “why real liquidity and institutional capital now sit in the UAE”.
The licensing will allow Kraken to offer spot, margin, OTC trading, staking, and Kraken Prime, its institutional prime brokerage platform, to clients throughout the region, subject to regulatory approval.
Kraken also plans to expand its Dubai offering by introducing derivatives, lending, and new investment products to eligible clients.
The VARA authorisation, Payward says, is part of its broader growth strategy to establish “regulated, on-the-ground operations in key financial centres”.
Commenting on the approval, Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, says that, by operating under VARA, they are “serving clients through a local, supervised entity rather than from offshore” and that the regulatory body’s framework is “why real liquidity and institutional capital now sit in the UAE”.
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