After acquiring a complete license to run a regulated trading platform in the United Arab Emirates, Kraken is extending into the Middle East and will establish its regional offices in Abu Dhabi.
Curtis Ting, Kraken's general manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, stated, "We're really pleased to be able to arrange our facilities right in the Abu Dhabi Global Market itself to run a virtual asset platform that now offers dirham pairings for traders in the region."
Upon receiving regulatory clearance from the ADGM and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority for its domestic launch, Kraken will become the first cryptocurrency platform to provide direct sourcing and selling in the UAE dirhams against ether, bitcoin, and a variety of other digital assets.
Ting went on to say that the goal is to make it easier for investors and traders in the region to reach global markets and stability by ensuring that they have access to local coins.
Kraken, which debuted in 2011 and works in over 60 countries, said the UAE. entry indicates a bigger drive into an increasingly profitable area.
According to Chainalysis, the Middle East is one of the world's fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets, accounting for 7% of worldwide trade volumes.
Each year, the UAE trades around $25 billion in cryptocurrencies. According to Chainalysis statistics collected between July 2020 and June 2021, it ranks third in terms of volume in the area, behind Lebanon which traded $26 billion and Turkey traded $132.4 billion in crypto.
Ronit Ghose, global head of banks research at Citi, said one of the factors we see an increase of investors, developers, operators, and marketers moving to Abu Dhabi and Dubai is because there is a perception of improved regulatory certainty at ADGM, and at a national level.
Ghose added, "It is truly starting to develop itself as a crypto hub as well as a Web3 hub."
Binance, the world's top cryptocurrency platform by trading volume, is one of the companies considering expanding in the Middle East, where cryptocurrency trading is growing more common.
Binance has received clearance to trade in Abu Dhabi and will be hiring for over 100 jobs there. Last month, another exchange Bybit obtained clearance, while FTX gained a digital license in Dubai and plans to open a head office soon.
